Beyond their years

Before they played at Soda Bar for North Park Music Thing two weeks ago, members of the band D/Wolves were gathered outside of the City Heights venue with friends and families in tow. After they finished their set, they were back outside, standing on the sidewalk.

Do they have a strange fondness for open air, or perhaps a case of group claustrophobia? Nope. They’re playing in a bar, and none of them is 21 years old yet. So they must walk in, rock the house and exit immediately.

Sounds like an uncomfortable situation, but D/Wolves prefer to hit the bar circuit in this somewhat compromised fashion than deal with the headaches associated with setting up and playing shows at local allages venues.

“After playing SOMA and Epicentre for four years, playing bars is just way better,” guitarist Jessie Cuevas says. All-ages clubs “make you sell, like, $200 worth of tickets, and then they don’t pay you. With bars, it’s just, like, show up.”

“People we still know who are playing metal… most of the time they ‘pay to play,’” bass player Brian Scafidi adds. “They go to L.A. and spend 80 bucks on gas, and then they couldn’t sell all the [pre-sale tickets], so they spend, like, another hundred bucks on the show. So they end up paying $200 to play this show for 10 people. We’re like, ‘OK, we’ll play a bar for free.’” Once you hear the band’s songs, their desire to perform for an older audience makes sense. Their music is probably a bit too complex for the typical metalcore fan. It lends itself to the ears of adults in their mid-20s and 30s, as opposed to teenagers just getting past their Justin Beiber phase.

Their influences range from Creedence Clearwater Revival to The Mars Volta to Beach House to Out- Kast. Onstage, they have an odd look. Cuevas’ long hair makes him appear as if he’s a lost sheep from a metal band, caught with an indie-rock outfit fronted by a softspoken teenager; gear far outnumbers band members— I think I counted three additional keyboards on stage. They move through their set with minimal enthusiasm but maximum efficiency. On record, they give off an airy mystique, combining elements of both acoustic and fuzzed-out guitars against a backdrop of synthesized effects. They come across as an experimental version of a band like Grandaddy, or perhaps the little brother to Wavves.

And that’s apropos, since Joel Williams, the band’s singer / guitarist / keyboardist / full-time lyric writer, is Wavves’ Nathan Williams’ real-life little bro. Band members joke that this connection “makes them look cool.”

“We went to the Wavves show at the art gallery [Aug. 12 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Downtown], and after their show, they came over to our show with Best Coast,” Cuevas says with a laugh. “It was, like, the coolest thing ever. Everyone was watching them watch us.”

Having a successful older brother in a rock band has other perks, too—they were able to borrow Wavves’ luxurious cruising vessel (aka: van) for their tour up the West Coast with longtime pals Da Bears, which they all agree was a hell of good time.

“Da Bears spent as much money on booze as we did on gas,” Scafidi recalls. The band got the bug for touring, and they’re eager to hit the road again.

Any of their Point Loma High School classmates who missed out on their initial tour got a chance to see the results first-hand at the end of their senior year.

“We have a senior exhibition, which is this big final project. You had to talk about a subject which affected you. We just did it about going on tour. The people were super into it,” Scafidi said.

Williams chimes in: “My counselor used to try to steer me away from music whenever I told her I wanted to play music for a living. She would say, ‘No one makes money doing that. You should go to college.’ But after she heard our music and saw the exhibition, she was like, ‘Yeah, you shouldn’t go to college.’ Which was kinda cool!” CB

D/Wolves play with Brothers Young at Bar Pink on Tuesday, Aug. 31. myspace.com/wolvesd