Watch: Wavves – Post Acid (Live from Paris)

It’s plain to see why Wavves, fronted by tearaway singer Nathan Williams, are largely either loved or loathed. The noise-pop band have experienced a turbulent time during their short three-year existence, making many stirs and causing much upset, as well as providing a lot of drama for fans and detractors to revel in.

At 2009′s Primavera Sound the front man, allegedly high on a cocktail of prescription medication and ecstasy, managed to pick fights with both members of the crowd and his own band. Williams cancelled the rest of his tour and responded to the negative press by recruiting the backing band of the late garage-rock hero Jay Reatard and bringing out a more insouciant record in the form of King of the Beach.

You would expect Wavves to have calmed down a bit since the hype whirlpool experienced on the back of their 2008 self-titled debut. But this definitely isn’t the case, evident in a recent session captured by French multimedia website La Blogotheque. The video shows the band take to the Parisian streets, serenading a largely uninterested group of civilians and passers-by from a hotel balcony. After the crew persuade Williams to retreat back to their en-suite, the band continue an out-of-tune rendition of ‘Post Acid’ in their typically apathetic manner before the crew finally catches redeeming moments of sheer euphoria as the band play to a frenzied French crowd.

It’s during these latter scenes that Wavves’ are most appealing. Gone is their off-putting and often-irritating lethargy, replaced by youthful and unbridled energy. They at least seem to have won over their hosts at La Blogotheque, who summarise the footage in such gleaming terms (translated from the French, of course):

There are musicians fussy, the control freaks, poets, and there’s Wavves, a triplet side of the plate, almost oblivious of his talent to make tunes of the summer.