Little Viking shook the walls of Springwater Friday night. After a ballad of broken strings and early mishaps, the band finally broke the carbonated silence with their surfer garage rock harmonies and choppy riffs. What started out as a loose and sloppy representation of an underground scene soon turned into a set that can only be described as vivid . They played songs from their EP Howling at Earth, and got the crowd howling themselves with the opening riffs of "Nicole and Carl Sagan." The grungy, lo-fi punch of this band compliments other Nashville natives like Big Surr and may even have enough of a following to bring this sub-culture to the light. Plain and simple, these guys are loud and electric. Don’t let the surf-rock roots mislead you; their sound is bigger than the small stage of Springwater.
Little Viking announced on stage, "This will be our last show for a long time" since they are writing new songs, and will soon be at Battle Tapes recording a new album. Seeing this four-piece live left me itching for a new album, since their cassette tape EP was only a teaser of three tunes. Their sound is nostalgic and progressive, which is just as contradicting as their band and track titles, but what their songs really lacked were endings – they would just fizzle out, along with the attention of some of the audience in the back of the room. For the most part though, heads were nodding, bodies were swaying and they kept our attention. This show left me seriously anticipating the new Battle Tapes sessions. – Beau Welsh