Thursday, 22 December 2011

Wolfmother @ Manchester Academy


On entry to the venue my ears were greeted with a sound which I can only describe as a wailing mess. When I finally made it upstairs to the balcony of the venue, and the band were in full view, I could see the only thing missing from these modern age hippies were the headbands and flairs. With a name like the Black Angels you would expect, at the very least, for their sound to be heavy and have a huge impact in every aspect. In fact, the exact opposite is true; very little substance and wailing vocals make up a rather poor effort. The boredom could not just be seen on my face, but also on many of the crowd’s faces around me.
As the trio departed, ironically the venue began to fill with people. 

With the arrival of Wolfmother not far away, the atmosphere grew to new levels and there was an air of excitement around the venue. The Aussie rockers took to the stage kicking straight into ‘Dimension’, and rocking the venue right from the off. The only dull faces were the stewards and the people behind the bar. An applause, well worthy of the fantastic performance just seen, fills the venue.


By third song ‘California Queen’, the band are going hell for leather – hair flying everywhere, an amazing light display, and a mental drummer…and we’re not even half way through the night! ‘Woman’, ‘New Moon Rising’, and ‘White Unicorn’ go on for at least 7 minutes each, and every minute feels like sheer musical bliss. It’s very refreshing to see a band play hard rock for an hour and a half, hardly say a word, and go off at the end. It’s just simple…although Stockdale (lead vocals) did stand on the drum riser lapping it up for a good 5 minutes; we won’t mention that though. An epic night from one of the best rock bands around at the moment, and I’m sure the sweaty fans coming out afterwards will agree with me.

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