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Typically I try not to describe a band's sound by listing every obvious influence and antecedent. But when it comes to Wolfmother, the exercise is almost impossible to avoid. Their sound is a skein of '70s rock tropes. Songs contain blatant borrowings from Steppenwolf, Led Zepplin, The Rolling Stones, and Black Sabbath, taking everything from little riffs to entire melodies to more esoteric thematic robberies. It's not bad to borrow, but there is certainly a big difference between what someone like Jack White has managed to do with his influences and what Wolfmother is doing with theirs.
Openers the Heartless Bastards are influenced by a similar era of rock music, but theirs is more southern garage rock. None of their songs are quite as bold as Wolfmother's, or as complicated. The pace is slow with very few tracks topping a hundred beats per minute. Chord changes come at a premium. The result is a set of slow and forlorn trudgers like "The Mountain," which is the best of the bunch. Singer Erika Wennerstrom delivers her low throaty vocals with pomp and irreverence at the same time. She looked the part of a chick rocker last night in her blue tank top that accentuated her cut arms, blonde bangs shielding her eyes. Through their set the crowd grew; a full club became a packed club.
A roadie placed a lei on frontman Andrew Stockdale's mic as the house lights grew dim and then died to rising cheers from the crowd. Everything was orange and red and yellow as Wolfmother, at least two massive 'fros among them, took the stage. They launched in to "Dimension," the first track off their eponymous 2005 debut. A few fists with pointer and pinkie extended shot up from the crowd in approval. A small mosh pit area began to form about five feet from the stage--though the movement in the pit was more like friendly jostling than moshing. They finished the song and Stockdale moved the lei to a drum mic stand with no explanation. He has a powerful Ozzy-like voice which he cakes with reverb. The sound was big but not as loud as I expected it to be. "Woman," another cut from their debut, was a crowd-pleaser. They finished with a blazing version of "Joker and The Thief." In general, the crowd seemed much more enthralled with the older material than the new; which is to be expected since their new album is a little more than a week old.
At one point last night, huddled with the sold out crowd at 930 Club, I was positive Wolfmother were covering "Start Me Up," by The Stones. But no, it was a track off their new album Cosmic Egg called "White Feather." It wasn't a bad song at all, just extremely derivative. No listener wants a concert experience to confound and tease them to ask, "What the hell other song does this sound like?" for a full hour. But limitations of the source material aside, it was a good (not great) rock 'n' rock show.
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i swear, a bunch of these pictures look like you might have dredged up archival footage from some old show at the cap centre...
or a lenny kravitz show.
Wolfmother put on a spectacular show. Everything I could have wanted from them.
Where's the coverage from Tuesday's Get Up Kids show?
I was pretty excited about TGUK. The excitement wasn't there for the band. They seemed bored, were pretty sarcastic to the crowd, and I thought they played pretty sloppy. I knew it wasn't going to be like when I saw them in '98, when they were really Kids. But why bother reuniting, if you're going to do it half ass? Especially compared to the amazing SDRE show a few weeks ago, where the band was so gracious to be playing, and seemed tight and well rehearsed...
anybody get a better view of the brawl that went down in front of the soundboard?
i was pretty close to it, but it was chaos. couldn't see what actually happened or who they tossed out. it just finally ended. but man, it was kinda insane there for a second.
wolfmother, to their credit, didn't miss a beat.
We were pretty close to the brawl, but didn't see much. They got it broken up and outside really quick.
One thing I took note of was how well Wolfmother played the crowd. A lot of bands roll in to DC and comment on how we all just stand there like dead fish. But multiple times Stockdale appealed for some cheering, clapping, or whatever during songs and the crowed responded.
Their sound is a skein of '70s rock tropes.
Hm. That's a bit rough on the ear, yes? A critique should roll trippingly from the tongue like dappled sunlight on a forest stream. How about, "Their sound is a gutbucket of '70s cock rock." Ah! Le Mot Juste!
We were at the front of the balcony, right above the fight. From above it looked mostly like some circling and shoving until Club staff broke it up and moved both of the fighters out.
No mention of the first opener, thenewno2? They were at least more enjoyable than the bland Heartless Bastards.
My ears are still ringing from Wolfmother's set. A great, fun show. Drew's right about Stockdale getting the crowd more into it than is common for DC shows.
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i actually thought the newno2 were pretty painful -- jammy, droney stoner rock, lifelessly executed. but to each their own, i guess.
can hear sabbath mostly and some zepplin but not so much the stones and certainly not jumping jack flash which I love but I'll give it another listen. Thought the show last night was great and really dug the new stuff. I haven't heard/seen that much energy in a long time but why do people mosh to this? It's not that kind of music and neither was Gaslight Anthem a few weeks ago. Ozzy would never cover a Kate Bush song. Reminded me why I don't like seeing KOL, Strokes and a host of other bands live.
Preferred the older Heartless Bastards to the newer version and don't know why Erika dumped them. They were actually interesting.
Moshing to Wolfmother?!? Agreed that is absurd.
(in fairness, though, I found the headbanging to Mastodon's pre-encore set on Saturday - when they played solely from "Crack the Skye" and not from their heavier, earlier stuff - awkward and out-of-place).