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Austinist Show Review: Wolfmother @ The Parish
If you haven't had the vaguely familiar pleasure of hearing Wolfmother yet, think Black Sabbath meets MC5 meets Black Sabbath with a smidgen of Led Zeppelin for taste. Did we mention they also conjure shades of metal progenitors, Black Sabbath? Sunday evening at The Parish, this Aussie power trio did their best to remind us of the enduring relevance of proto-metal. Having trimmed the proggy fat off their forefathers music, they stopped in to offer a glimpse of its undiluted essence.
For serious though: Wolfmother puts on a helluva show. What turned out to be a rather short set of ten songs or so, was nonetheless a visceral rollercoaster. As if there wasn't enough testosterone in the room, with a guy-to-girl ratio of roughly 10 to 1, at some point all eleven females in the crowd were called up on stage to dance through one of the songs. It could have appeared cheesy, but came off as quite natural for all involved. This could be Wolfmother's greatest asset. None of their stage moves or guitar "heroics" come off as unforgivably derivative or tacky, yet ostensibly, they are. This is partially due to how thorougly these guys rock, and how infectious the energy of these three brutes is once you're stuck in a room with them.
Lead singer and guitarist Andrew Stockdale, curly rock-fro' in full effect, belted lyrics like "Then a horse came running to me/Said we're gonna go to the sanctuary/Then a storm began to blow/Into another dimension." just like Ozzy did before he became a neurologically impaired laughingstock. We tear up a little just thinking about it.
Myles Heskett (drums) and Chris Ross (bass/organ) were a formidable percussive unit, the perfect anchor for Stockdale's noodling guitar riffs. Knowing full well that a slower, softer part would inevitably be followed by a much louder, kickass part, we still found ourselves bobbing uncontrollably. Wolfmother showed off their take on this tried-and-true formula, managing to keep their breakdowns fresh. We all bobbed in awe as the catchy hooks flowed over us like the viscous black blood of the interdimensional unicorn. ahem.
