When I arrived at the Wavves show early Wednesday night at Crescent Ballroom in downtown Phoenix, the speakers were playing the Dandy Warhols song, "Bohemian Like You." I'm not sure what it was about the song, but it set the mood for the night.
The supporting acts for the show were Swmrs (pronounced 'swimmers'), an established but lesser known act, and Twin Peaks, which I had not listened to before, but was a crowd favorite.
Swmrs is a band from Northern California. Most of the members are young and I got the impression they were an up-and-coming band so I was surprised to learn later that they had been around since 2004. They played the stand-out hit "I Just Want to be Uncool" and turned on a disco ball for their punk rock tribute to Miley Cyrus, simply titled "Miley".
Twin Peaks, a five-piece from Chicago, played second. Even though I had not listened to them before, apparently I was out of the know because they had impressive crowd approval. The band's sound was definitely garage, but I caught some influences of rockabilly and classic, like really classic rock. It made me think of Buddy Holly's music if he had time-traveled 60 years in the future and played on louder guitars and picked up a slacker aesthetic.
The energy of the crowd was high for Twin Peaks so it was good that after their set Wavves took 20 minutes to set up and allow everyone a breather.
Speaking of which, San Diego-based surf-rock group Wavves has been touring for a couple weeks in anticipation for the release of their new album "V." This show in Phoenix sold out the day of the concert and many people were flustered that they did not get a ticket in time.
phoenix tonights show is sold out and im high as hell #goodday
— WAVVES (@wavves) September 16, 2015
Wavves was greeted by cheers and applause from the mostly under-21 audience when they came onstage. Immediately when they started playing the opening song, "Sail to the Sun," everyone began jumping up and down and screaming.
A few songs in, people found out that the density of the pit was prime for crowd-surfing. A mass of people started jumping on top of their friends and diving off the stage. It got pretty intense.
There were people crowd-surfing from the back, from the front, from side to side and on top of one another. People would float to the stage and then jump off, but some tried to do more.
See also: Wavves' guitarist talk Odd Future comparison, Pete Wentz, pop-punk
One person attempted to take a selfie of singer Nathan Williams in the middle of a song and was pushed offstage. Williams was not exactly stoked after this happened.
"Do not come on stage and take a selfie with me," he said. "If anything, come on stage and swipe right on my Tinder."
Later in the night, a couple girls climbed onstage and began dancing behind the band, but were quickly rushed off and kicked out by venue staff.
The set list was a good mix of new material from their upcoming album and older hits. They played classics such as "Post Acid" and "Demon to Lean On," as well as new song "Way Too Much" and two songs from the upcoming record which have not been released yet.
Overall the show was one of the most fun experiences so far this year, and the bands seemed to enjoy it as well.
Twin Peaks drummer Connor Brodner remarked with an upbeat, yet morbid response. I hope he was joking.
"(It was) the second best day of my life," he said. "After my daughter's birthday. She's dead now."
Similarly, Twin Peaks bassist Jack Dolan answered in troll fashion when I asked him what he thought of playing in Phoenix.
"There's a lot of death in the desert," he said.
On a serious note, the band agreed it was probably the top one or two shows of the tour so far, tied with the Los Angeles show.
When asked for a quote, Wavves bass player Stephen Pope gave quite the response.
"What's up state paper," he said. "I want you to feel what I'm feeling right now. This is Stephen from Wavves."
I asked Nathan Williams of Wavves after the show to sum up his experience of Phoenix in five words. After thinking about it for a second, he responded, "It was really hot." But that was only four words so he revised it to, "It was really f---ing hot."
I thanked him for the great show, snapped a selfie and went home to sleep in my Tempe bed. What a night.
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Reach the reporter at lsaether@asu.edu or follow him on twitter at @looooogaaan.
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