The Wytches are hot off a month-long tour with Cloud Nothings and METZ, price but before heading back to England, buy they decided to bring their doom-wave sounds to a few headlining gigs on the East Coast. Their show Wednesday night at Great Scott was their first US headlining show, and they gripped the audience with their ghoulish rock n’ roll from Brighton, leaving a lasting –maybe even haunting– impression.

First on stage was The Dazies, the new project of Mikey Holland from Mean Creek. In fact, Holland said he had practice with Mean Creek right before this gig with The Dazies that night. They had a standard American retro vibe, and the few early birds at the venue seemed really into the Wallflowers-esque sound and vibrant energy The Dazies brought on stage.

Next was Dead Nugent, the project of Adam McGinn from local electronic-wave band Early Nineties. With only a drumset and a bass guitar, Dead Nugent swarmed the crowd with walls of fuzz and 60-second songs that never slowed down. Their sloppy playing only exemplified their comically carefree attitude. They played songs they wrote the day before, covered The Misfits, and wore a Batman mask while playing a song called “Eat Fuckin’ Brains.” They get bonus points for enlisting Sinbad to promote the show on twitter. I’m not sure The Wytches could have asked for a better opener.
 
Framed in an eerie green glow on stage, The Wytches’ blew through the first part of their set with precision and an air of effortlessness. They’d clearly been playing this rotation on the road as openers all month, and their practice has paid off. “Digsaw,” the first track on their soon-to-be-released LP, Annabel Dream Reader, rattled the crowd with sinister riffs. Kristian Bell, on lead guitar and vocals, knows how to use his voice effectively, moving from poignant melodies to searing vocal fry, all while his microphone and face are hidden under his long brown hair.

Halfway through their set, they introduced some new songs and played some slower jams off of their new album. Their sound can be repetitive. It wasn’t until the last 10 minutes of their set that they played a song in a major key (“Weights and Ties”). But their sound is also infectious. If you took all the best psych-rock bits of Arctic Monkeys’ 2009 album Humbug, amped it up and scrubbed its face in the dirt just a little to keep it raw, you’d have The Wytches.

They filled the spaces between songs with feedback and fuzz, rather than meaningless stage banter. Watching Bell, Honey, and Rumsey blow away the crowd at Great Scott confirms that this was only the first headlining show of many to come for The Wytches. ?