Why indeed? Well, because their third LP “Alopecia” is the best damned album that’s been released this year. My prior investigations into the mysterious and scary world of hip-hop have been limited at best, but there’s a reassuringly indie element to Yoni Wolf’s work, adding quirky Sufjan-esque instrumentation and crisp guitars to his literate, if occasionally fratboy-ish rhymes. And I’m glad to report that he’s more than capable of communicating his genre-bending versatility in a live setting too. I’d always (groundlessly) assumed that Why’s live performance would be heavily reliant on backing tracks, but in fact it’s 100% live- Yoni and his three homies skilfully translate their material with an impressive array of multi-instrumental showmanship. The tracks from Alopecia are universally great- whilst some songs remain similar to their album version (the ferocious staccato of The Hollows) the likes of Song of the Sad Assassins are afforded new arrangements that make better use of the talents on show. They also added some older songs into the mix which were just as strong- I’d not hard the chance to check their first two albums, but on the evidence here I’ll have to make it a priority. If there’s one minor criticism, it’s the brevity of the set (an hour, which went in a blink of an eye), but there’s no complaining about what we actually got. A supremely confident and impressive performance, and with two fine support sets courtesy of My Sad Captains and S.J Esau one of the best value-for-money shows of the year so far.(Photo: A Flickr In The Life (Flickr))
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