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.
