WOLFMOTHER, O2 ACADEMY, BIRMINGHAM, 16TH APRIL (LIVE)

Having built a rather hefty back catalogue of music over the years, Wolfmother must have resented the daunting task of choosing a setlist. Obviously this was their ‘Gypsy Caravan’ tour so one song was nailed on but the rest must have been a sticky and heated debate. Thankfully the Australian hard rockers managed to pick a pretty balanced set that wasn’t flooded with songs from their new album or sparse of a few old classics. I think in Wolfmother’s case it would be hard not to fill the majority of a setlist with older songs given the success of their self titled debut album. Those tracks still strongly resonate in the hearts and souls of fans who are desperate to hear their favourite live.

Unsurprisingly the crowd was primarily dominated by an older generation, despite the quality of their new album ‘Victorious’ it fails to connect with the youth of today like ‘Wolfmother’ did back in 2006. The younger generation have their heads in the clouds with the entrancing indie pop of bands like Spring King, Blossoms and Peace. The gritty desire for distortion fuelled rock and roll is fading into the ever distant past as the garage rock revival of the early noughties seems to have run its course. Obviously we speak in a very generic sense; there are still a vast amount of people out there that crave a heavier sound. It’s still very much alive but like the last candle on a cake that refuses to be blown out despite the relentless attempts to extinguish its existence. A few bands have successfully broken through the ranks in recent years by mirroring the grizzly tendencies of garage rock, Slaves and The Wytches for example but many younger people would have only ever heard of Wolmother in passing ghost whispers. They burst onto the stage of the O2 Academy in Birmingham at 9PM with their new album title track Victorious. Bold, brave and energetic the perfect way to kick it all off. Their stage presence was immediately felt and the audience were captivated all in a moment. Imagine if you could bottle that feeling up and sell it, you’d be an overnight millionaire. Stockdale’s powerful vocals were tested by the crowd who challenged to equal him; it’s rare you get that with a new song so soon after its release it had the feeling of an old classic as everyone bellowed along.

Despite the fast paced introduction the crowd had yet to burst into flames, did we have a mellow gig on our hands here? New Moon Rising was then followed by an obvious crowd pleaser ‘Woman’ this is where shit started to kick up a gear. The crowd split into a typical format with a sea of people eyes front disturbed by the sweaty black hole in the middle. Arms flying, beers thrown in the air, people falling over, crowd surfing all you could want from a typical rock gig. They didn’t fuck about, dropping straight into ‘Apple Tree’ the song that sounds like their personal tribute to The White Stripes. This only built momentum as more and more people surged forward leaving their friends/ family and girlfriends behind for a piece of the moshpit action. It was clear that songs from the first album created an electric atmosphere in the venue and they clearly played on this notion as they dropped into ‘White Unicorn’, ‘Dimension’, ‘Minds Eye’, ‘Pyramid’ and ‘Colossal’ during the bulk of the set. Squeezing some new songs into the mix they premiered a live debut of ‘City Lights’ especially for the people of Birmingham. It’s another great song from their new album, you could tell they had never played it live before though. All may have seemed kosher to the untrained ear but Stockdale missed a good few notes during the songs high pitched riff, we probably wouldn’t have commented on such a pointless fact but the riff is the spine of the song. It wasn’t just once or twice he was accidentally numbing the strings and miss-strumming frequently, which wouldn’t have been so evident if the overall stage sound was thicker and louder it probably would have been masked. So although that’s not too cool you have to say kudo’s to them for playing so raw and vulnerably! We personally couldn’t care less, after all he’s only human and we were far to engrossed to give a shit, but this is a review and we need to take both sides into account for those keyboard warriors out there.

They ended with an almighty encore of ‘Vagabond’ and the classic ‘Joker & the Thief’ probably the song that first introduced you all to Wolfmother. It was packed with everything you can expect from a traditional rock gig, hard vintage 70’s riffs, moshpits even the odd theatric from the bassist as he played piano and bass at the same time. Actually this deserves a full explanation, he had the bass resting on his left thigh and right hand playing piano and as he got to the end of the lick he used his leg to launch the bass up to start the riff again from the bottom. Impressive stuff! Also side note, diggin’ the 60’s hippie look the band have going on. Once upon a time we thought we would never have the chance to see Wolfmother live as they seemed to disappear off the face of the earth, but within the space of 2 years we have managed to see them twice! And we will let you into a little personal secret here….. IT’S NOT ENOUGH. We want more, so Wolfmother if you’re reading this don’t be strangers in the UK we want to see you back here again later this year for another tour. You can catch the full setlist here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdwFwcv2qfw