Case Oats at The Waiting Room

Case Oats

Vegas Water Taxi 

The Waiting Room, 1 June 2026 

I have been longing to see Case Oats live since their debut album, Last Missouri Exit, came out last year and I fell in love with its folky, lo-fi charm. I finally got the chance last night at The Waiting Room, where they treated us to lots of tunes from that record and a bunch of new ones too, as well as a fantastic Neil Young cover, so I'm happy to say they lived up to all my expectations and much more.

I had never been to The Waiting Room before, it turns out it's hidden away, downstairs from a nice looking pub/restaurant called the Three Crowns in Stoke Newington. The space itself turns out to be pretty tiny with, of course, it's own dedicated bar, seating on the sides and a small stage. I still opted for the front as the stage was low enough that I knew I wouldn't see much if I stood further back despite it being a small space. 

The size of the venue did mean that the artists had to make their way through the crowd to get to the stage, and this is how Ben Hambro, the man behind Vegas Water Taxi, the support act tonight, emerges. He plugs in his electric guitar and then sits on a wooden chair in the centre of the stage, which is a big indicator it will be a more mellow performance. 

Hambro, who with his elfin features and short blonde hair reminds me a little of Thom Yorke, used to be the leader of the Bristol band Lazarus Kane, who I'm not that familiar with, but his latest project sees him venturing into more Americana ground.

The songs are stripped down so I'm sure they sound different with a full band and maybe a little pedal steel, but it's clear Hambro is going for a MJ Lenderman or Silver Jews vibe, with gently melodic songs with slightly humorous lyrics, as evidenced by songs with titles like Ozempic and New Irish Boyfriend.

He even debuts a new song Paul Mescal, which seems to be about the dangers of comparing himself to the handsome Irish actor! (This one seems to go down particularly well as someone in the audience even asks him about it at the end of his set).

It was all very pleasant but I think if I had seen him play with a band and heard the songs with the full Americana flavour it might have intrigued me more The crowd seemed to really dig it though, and some even seemed familiar with his material, which was nice.  

I was more excited though to see Chicago band Case Oats though, whose music has completely charmed me since I heard their debut single Seventeen early last year, so I jumped at the chance to see them play their first proper London show (Casey and Spencer from the band did make an instore appearance at Rough Trade West last year but unfortunately for me it clashed with the Margo Price show!).

The full band emerged, again from the crowd, led by singer/songwriter Casey Gomez Walker, looking cute as a button in a cropped Flaming Lips t-shirt and white skirt, followed by bassist Jason Ashworth, guitarist Max Subar and drummer Spencer Tweedy. In addition to being Casey's fiance, Tweedy of course is also the drummer for Waxahatchee and I recently saw him playing drums in his dad Jeff Tweedy's solo band a few months ago.

They immediately started the set with a brand new tune called Closer Than You Think, a quite rollicking country number with the band harmonising on the chorus of "the stars are not so distant", with Casey jumping around and dancing as the band played the stomping musical outro. It was definitely a great start.

The band then went to more familiar territory, with the laid back country shuffle of Buick Door. This one has always reminded me of Wilco I must say, which seems natural since they are obviously part of the Tweedy clan and it's certainly no bad thing, so I hope they don't mind the comparison.

Casey then picked up her small acoustic guitar and the band continued to delve into songs from their fantastic debut album, bouncing through songs like the gritty Hallelujah, the singalong Nora, the bittersweet swing of In A Bungalow and the playful, lo-fi folk of Seventeen.

But best of all was probably Bitter Root Lake, a song about a pilot crashing into a lake and having to abandon his girlfriend in the freezing waters, that is far more jaunty and catchy than that sounds and had most of the audience singing along to the chorus of "Diane, Diane, I'm saying that I'm still your man!" It was so much fun. 

Every song Casey swung her long hair around and had a huge smile on her face, energetically springing around the small area on the stage behind her microphone. I will say her voice sounded a tiny bit hoarse but she still gamely carried on and, as the band's sound isn't based on big vocal turns, it didn't really affect things too much. At one point though she asked if it would be possible if a cream soda could somehow be carried from the back over the heads of the sold-out crowd and it did magically appear, to which Casey raised the glass triumphantly in the air to cheers!

It was also fascinating to see Spencer Tweedy play the drums up close, as I've only ever seen him play on much bigger stages before. Aside from having some of the most amazing cheekbones I've ever seen, he's actually a really fantastic drummer and his playing adds so much to the songs. I can only imagine being around such incredible musicians growing up, including Wilco's superb drummer Glenn Kotche, helped him to become a fantastic musician himself.

There was one new song though called Father's Daughter where Spencer stepped out from behind the drumkit and played acoustic guitar, fastly strumming for a building slightly intense tale that felt like a hazy memory, with Casey emotionally singing  "I'm a girl, who is still her father's daughter, and I'm running home." The song, with its bare bones performance, feels quite raw and real, it's quite beautiful and very atmospheric. 

While I loved hearing all my favourites from the album at long last, it was also quite thrilling to hear all the new songs too which I assume is from the forthcoming second record. Aside from the aforementioned Closer Than You Think and Father's Daughter, there was the gentle and contemplative mid-tempo track Tiny, about a friend who passed away too young. Another, School Door had a groovy beat and Stonesy guitar lick which Casey told us was about imaging what her ancestors went through coming from Puerto Rico to America. 

The band also played the terrific new single Bottom Of An Afternoon, minus the trumpet solo, with its bluesy chorus and conversational lyrics. But maybe best of the new tunes was the final song of the night, Wonderful Things, with its Southern rock swagger and Casey telling us in her talk-singing style, "I still dream wonderful things!" as she jumped around the stage, with the song eventually slowing and Casey softening her voice, until the song quietly came to an end.

This and the whole set got such a good response from the crowd that the band, still awkwardly loitering around the edge of the stage (nowhere to go except through the audience, you see), decided to just pick up their instruments again. It actually felt like a genuine, unplanned encore. It wasn't on the setlist and according to the internet they generally don't seem to do many encores, so there must have been something about the response to this show where they felt comfortable doing another couple of numbers.

The first of these was the final song of the record, Bluff, with just Casey on her guitar and Spencer singing backup. This charming song reminds me to those childlike, anti-folk songs by the likes of Kimya Dawson and Jeffrey Lewis, and was so sweet and captivating in its simplicity. 

The rest of the band then joined in for a fantastic high-spirited version of Neil Young's Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, with the whole band and much of the audience joining in on those famous la las in the chorus. It was a rip-roaring and joyous way to end the night. 

This was such a fun first London show for Case Oats and the whole audience seemed to be happy to be along for the ride. After Casey was manning the merch desk and chatting to people and seemed incredibly sweet. I don't think she will be doing that for long though, as I'm sure she and the whole band are on the up and will be playing bigger venues next time hopefully, but I'm so glad I got to see them at this special intimate show.