Wolf Mother / ¡Forward Russia!: Highbury Garage, London 21 Sep 2005

Now that Autumn is upon us we can look forward to half a year of seeing music properly - inside, standing up covered in someone else’s sweat. Marvellous. And where better to kick this all off that the Garage in Highbury, literally the hottest venue in London with the brightest, retina scorching sodium lights.

These things are essential to capture the full effect of very loud rock music, as well the Garage knows. And another thing they know is how to book good bands. Headlining this evening is Australia’s answer to my dad’s record collection, Wolf Mother – a ridiculously named but hugely entertaining band from Sydney. Supporting them were someone else (sorry, didn’t finish my tea in time) and the equally interesting, if not slightly more disarming, ¡Forward Russia!

These guys, whose explosive electro rock pretty much took the crowd by surprise, heaved out songs like anvils and dropped them into the crowd with an almost scary amount of energy for people not visibly on drugs. Experimenting a great deal with tempo changes and syncopation –always a treat if done properly – ¡Forward Russia! played songs that didn’t so much begin and end, than simply start and stop. That they were all referred to by number only, may betray some kind of revolutionary thinking and a desire to push the envelope or something, but hell it did sound good. Numbers 15 and 11 were best. A band well worth catching if you can.

Also worth catching, not least for the huge ‘fro of their Simon Amstell look-a-like singer, were Wolf Mother, a three piece heavy rock outfit from Sydney whose talent for playing the music of yesteryear blurred the line between parody and genuinely being born into the wrong generation. Lead singer Andrew Stockdale had the Robert Plant/Jack White thing going on like no one’s business (see ‘Apple Tree’) and played guitar like Toni Iommi. Myles Heskett’s drumming lacked only a five-minute solo and the gloriously extravagant organ playing of Chris Ross was made even more impressive by the fact that he doubled on floor-shaking bass.

With song titles like ‘Woman’ and ‘White Unicorn’, you could have been forgiven for thinking they are a spoof, but the over-loud thump of the bass and the lavish guitar work showed that actually these guys just really, really dig that shit and seriously enjoy playing it. And the devoted crowd loved listening to it so much that the majority of them had travelled thousands of miles to come to hear it. Via Shepherds Bush.

Wolf Mother deserve this sort of adoration though. No early seventies rock band would have got anywhere if it hadn’t been for the starry eyed girls and the blown away boys. A blues rock revival has been on the cards for some time, started by bands such as The Black Keys and The Jets as well as whoever it is that owns the rights to the Cream recordings, and Wolf Mother are ready for it. As we appear to be moving backwards through time with our influences it probably won’t be long until Cliff Richard gets another look in, but until that day comes rest assured that amps will continue to blow and strings will continue to break in over-crowded venues the world over. Rock on.

words: Robin Harris
photos: Colm Larkin

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