I went to a Wolfmother show last night. This is how it went.



UPDATE: My dad called me with some corrections for my Warfield lore (see below), so this is version 2.0.

Bill Bryson said something in In a Sunburned Country about how Australians are always outstanding at whatever they put their mind too. Yet more proof was in evidence last night. Apparently Wolfmother gets a lot of guff from certain circles. Maybe I'm just getting older, but I really don't care. They play the sort of music I like and they do an amazing job.

Of course, I'm a total sucker for 70s music, from ABBA to Zeppelin comma Led. I like 70s culture in general. I guess I'm no better than all those hipster douchebag college students who idolize the 80s even though they weren't even born until the end of said decade. But although Wolfmother gets a lot of flak for sounding too retro, I actually think they're plenty modern. For example, they don't have the blues-festishizing streak that most proto-metal bands had.

Anyway, the concert. It was an early birthday surprise from my lady, who bought the tickets via eBay since the show was already sold out. She refuses to say how much she paid for them, but I think it was not cheap. :/

The show was at the Warfield, which has some pretty strong family connections:

A marquee painted by my dad (the banner is a much-improved copy of a funky homemade banner some hippie made that Bill Graham really liked):


The man himself working on the installation:

My dad informs me that the skeletons were used for many other GD shows and were not custom-made for that particular show. In fact, he's painted them at the Oakland Auditorium, not the Warfield.

My take on the picture of the Dead show with the "Steal Your Face" backdrop was erroneous. He painted that backdrop in the mid-70s while he was still working for the San Francisco Opera by day and BGP by night. He painted the backdrop--a copy of the "Steal Your Face" album cover--over two nights of work. My dad clarified the Warfield story thusly:

He was working on the inaugural Warfield series of concerts for BGP and was stuck down in the basement during opening night, painting a backdrop based on a Stanley Mouse image. His workspace was roped off, but there were still staff and backstage pass people who would walk by and ogle him as he worked, talking about him like he wasn't there, snorting bumps and smoking joints. The Dead took the piece with them and it appeared on tour in various venues for some years to come.

The "New Year's Eve" photo was actually from a show at Oakland Auditorium. And I can't believe I forgot to include this:


One of my dad's most well-known posters, second only to the famous Radio City Music Hall poster, methinks.

So yeah, it was fun to finally go there for myself.

Actually, I'd been there before, about 8 years ago--has it been that long?--when I went on a road-trip with my dad to attend a retirement party for his old partner/associate Peter Barsotti held at the theater.

The funny thing about the Warfield is that even though it has all that family history, even though I've been there, even though I've walked past it any number of times...I had no idea where it was until I got there. I blame the theater's nondescript facade.

We took the bus and got there around 7:15--the show was due to start at 8:00. I observed that while it's harder to go to the movies in SF than in LA, it's easier to go to shows. That seems to fit the aesthetic of the city.

We passed through three phalanxes of Warfield staff, including a pat-down session, before we were asked for tickets. In general, there were staff everywhere. There was even some corporate-type lady at the landing of the stairs going up to the balcony (where we went to use the restrooms) saying, "Welcome to the Warfield!" to everyone who passed by. Odd.

After relieving ourselves we headed back down to the ground floor. Our tickets were General Admission, so I was a little bummed about having to stand for several hours, but fortunately the place was still pretty empty and we parked ourselves behind the prime real estate of a low wall that seperated a lower level from the one we were standing on, giving me a place to lean on and take the weight off my feet, which is the next best thing to sitting. Plus no worries about tall people blocking our view. Muhahaha!

As the place slowly filled up we engaged in a bit of people watching. The crowd was not really what I expected. To paraphrase a review I read of another SF Wolfmother show from last year, it was mostly a mixture of the "Live 105" crowd and weekend warriors, with only a few metal heads thrown in for flavor. Of course, we were a ways back from the stage, so it could be that all the heshers were down in front.

We also noticed a couple most likely on their first date--they had that whole awkward "first date personal space" thing going on between them. Then there was this rather unattractive couple who spent the whole pre-show making out and hanging off each other like monkeys, as if it was all brand new to them. Maybe it was?

This is the first non-punk show I've ever been to and it was interesting to note all the differences. I already mentioned the abundance of staff and their "hard sell" attitude--you definitely don't get that at the Glass House in Pomona! Also, it was less of a fashion show, but I suppose that's to be expected. Maybe the weirdest thing was when the opening band (which I'll get to) came out, there was a fair amount of enthusiasm. Certainly no booing or calls to, "Get off the stage!"

Of course, one of the neat things about punk shows is that opening act(s) can often be just as interesting as the main attraction. Not the case here. They were called Cage the Elephant and they came all the way from Kentucky to rock us. Or so said the lead singer, who was trying WAY too hard to come off as the next Mick Jagger. The whole band (with the exception of the bassist, who was doing his best John Entwhistle impersonation) was just trying way too hard, trying to make up for their generic rock with lots of dashing around the stage and fancy footwork and lots of shouting and trying to get people hyped up. I'm sorry, but if your music isn't doing it already, there's no amount of theatrics that will make up for it. A hilarious moment occurred when the singer tried to scale a pile of amps ala Eddie Vedder and a tech guy came out of the wings and called him down. Ha!

After they wrapped up I heard a guy next to me say, "Well that was about 40 minutes too long." Couldn't agree more. I guess I can say that I'm happy for them as people, but they should probably just stick with whatever local following they've built up back in Bowling Green. They'd make a pretty good bar band.

Another non-punk-show difference was the amount of set-up/take-down time. After Cage the Elephant got off the stage, a horde of roadies and techs descended and started switching things over. A lot of the Warfield techs look like they've been working there for at least 40 years. Oh the stories they could tell! (If only they could remember...)

So yeah, Wolfmother got out on the stage pretty quickly. The singer/guitarist, in addition to his trademark afro, is now sporting a beard and I must say it works well on him. He looked a bit scary clean-shaven:



Here he is at the show (photos ganked from here):



All three band members have an immediate stage presence and accessability. I'd heard that they put on an amazing live show and they did not disappoint.



Here's the set list, as best I can remember, with notes as appropriate (EDIT: I just saw an official set list today, and I got it mostly right--Love Train actually came after White Unicorn, but otherwise my memory was sound):

Dimension A down-tempo version that I didn't like as much as the album version.
Pyramid
Love Train Both this and Pyramid rocked on an atomic level.
Apple Tree My least favorite Wolfmother song (too White Stripes for my taste), but the live version was amazing. This is probably a good point to mention that the singer had two mics, one of which had a "dirty" sound to it. The weird thing about the dirty mic was that it was on a tiny little 18" stand, so it was either on the floor (requiring him to kneel and sing into it) or placed on an amp behind him (requiring him to dash between mics, and sing with his back to the audience when he was on the dirty mic). Weird.
White Unicorn A dual-necked guitar was busted out for this one to much applause. I think it's a new acquisition for the band--they seemed quite pleased with it. The song was amazing and featured some pretty nice improvisational jams. I'm not a big fan of extended jams or solos unless they serve the greater structure of the song, and for the most part there was no instrumental wankery last night.
Where Eagles Have Been This song rocks by its very nature and they were smart enough not to tamper with it.
A new song I'd read that this was the last tour for their album and that afterword it's into the studio for a new one. The song was good--needs a little polishing, I think, but definitely up to par.
Tales from the Forest of the Gnomes This was the only song in the set that kinda lagged, which is a shame because I really like the original. Also, I just thought I'd point out that in the U.S. version of the album, the song is entitled simply "Tales". WTF? Do Amercians have a problem with gnome-filled forests?
Woman Simply breath-taking. Probably the best live performance I've ever seen.
Instrumental Jam That's what I'd call this if I had made a bootleg of the concert (oh, how I wish I had!). I think they're working out some sounds for the new album during this tour. Apparently last night's show was the first of their American tour--it would be interesting to catch the last show and see how the jam portion had evolved. I guess that's what the whole Dead Head thing is about, eh?
Mind's Eye The jam led seamlessly into Mind's Eye and it brought the first set to a close in grand fashion. I haven't talked much about the other two members of the group, but they were equally as charismatic as the singer/guitarist. The bassist/keyboardist in particular seems to be a bit of grandstander, particularly when he wails away on his synth, which he hurls around the stage bodily as if he's fighting with it.

After leaving the stage for about 5 minutes the band came out to do a synth-based encore, by which I mean all three songs featured the bassist playing the keys only.

Vagabond This low-key foot-stomper started things out on a good note. After the number ended, the singer said he was sorry that the last time the band was in SF they were all sick and turned in only an "average" show, but that they were going to make it up to us now...
Colossal ...and they did with this brain shattering rendition of Colossal, Des's favorite song of theirs. I was glad they played it and played it so well.
Joker and the Thief Colossal gave way more or less immediately to Joker and the band pretty much blew the roof off.

And that was it. The band threw drumsticks and set lists into the audience (would've loved to have caught any of those!) and then we were off. Des was disappointed that they didn't play Witchcraft, but I wasn't surprised--the song would lack it's heart without the Jethro Tull-ish flute portion, and I doubted they were about to bring Ron Burgundy to the stage.

For a loud concert the sound levels were actually not too bad. My ears weren't ringing too much and Des didn't even use her earplugs during the Wolfmother set (she kept them in for Cage the Elephant though--no sense losing your hearing over such a shitty band).

All in all it was an amazing show. I still can't figure out the weird crowd mix, but Wolfmother was amazing. I'll definitely try to catch them the next time they come through town.

Also, Des wrote a review of her own in which she discusses the band's fasion choices among other things. Read it here.