Baton Rouge got a taste of British flair Monday with a visit from UK trio Wave Pictures.
After releasing 12 albums, two in the United States, the British band has embarked on its first tour of North America to promote the band’s third U.S. release, “Long Black Cars.”
Lead singer David Tattersall, Franic Rozycki and Jonny “Huddersfield” Helm performed at Spanish Moon on Monday alongside headliner Allo Darlin, an indie pop band, as part of a one-month tour together.
“Cars,” released on Moshi Moshi Records on April 17, has been well reviewed in England for songs like “Spaghetti” and “Stay Here & Take Care Of The Chickens.”
According to Tattersall, the message of the album comes from a line in the song “Long Black Cars” that says “I heard the devils in the details and I heard that God was in there, too.”
Tattersall and Rozycki grew up together in the village of Wymeswold, England, where they formed a band called Blind Summit with Hugh Noble as drummer.
Noble left the band to study philosophy, and Helm replaced him as a permanent member after he met Rozycki in school.
Upon looking through an art book with a series of pictures, the group was inspired to rename the band Wave Pictures.
Helm said the tour has gone well. He said the reception of American audiences is varied in comparison to the United Kingdom. “We’ve always had quite a good reception in New York,” Helm said. “The audiences have been very nice to us. I think we’re playing to the right kind of audience. We’ve been very appreciative of it.”
 
Wave Pictures has toured extensively in Europe over the past five years, according to Helm. He said they have been to countries like Spain, Germany and Austria.
“This is the first proper tour of America,” Helm said. “We played in Montreal and Toronto in Canada, but this is the first time we’ve done a month tour in America.”
Helm said the United States has a different feel from the UK, but people have been friendly. He said America is good at exporting its culture through music and movies, so touring the United States has not given them a culture shock.
“It’s been really exciting seeing America, driving around and going to all these places that we’ve never been before,” Helm said. “Being in southern America has been very exciting. We went shopping and bought trucker hats. I just ordered a Philly cheese steak sandwich, which they don’t have back there in the UK.”
Helm said the difference between “Long Black Cars” and their past releases was the time it took to produce the record.
“We usually record almost like 30 songs in a day … but for this one we knew all the songs that we wanted to be in our album,” Helm said. “We were a bit more focused with it. I think it’s a bit more rock and roll and a bit more fun sounding.”
For the performance at the Spanish Moon, Helm said students could expect to hear some quiet songs along with rocking guitar solos by Rozycki.
“Our guitarist is hot,” Helm said. “Overall, there is a rock and roll feel to it, so if [they’re] into that kind of thing, they should come out.”
 
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Contact Raylea Barrow at [email protected]