San Francisco Bathhouse
November 8 | Reviewed by Brannavan Gnanalingam

CARNAGE. That’s the only way to describe this gig. The mosh-pit was a maelstrom of writhing bodies, the band donated half their sweat to the sticky floor afterwards, and the bouncers got frantic as crowd members stormed the stage to torpedo back in, while speaker systems billowed smoke. Anyone who witnessed this rock n roll depravity went away exhilarated – when The Ramones blared on the stereo after the set had closed, Joey, Johnny and co sounded like they were playing with Zimmer frames to an old-folks home. This was music played fast and loud and without pretensions to ambience, subtlety or exploration.

Guitar Wolf are J-punk legends, and have been gnashing their teeth for decades. Right from the start you knew you were going to be in for a hedonistic live show – lead singer Seiji held up the devil fingers for what seemed like minutes (probably more like ten seconds), sculled back a beer and climbed up to howl. The crowd howled right back. While the opening band had performed a pretty good set beforehand – they had played pretty solid punk/garage and when they went all sludgy they sounded great thanks to their rhythm section – it would have been impossible to predict the ferocity and energy we were about to witness.

Song after song was blasted out with the carefree abandon that gave them international renown as an incendiary live act. They didn’t care for song breaks or audience interaction (though Seiji’s attempt to find out New Zealand’s tallest mountain from the front-row who were probably gasping for breath anyway, which he misheard as Mt. Cookie, was hilarious) nor did they really stick to what their roadie or New Zealand health and safety regulations said. It was manic, culminating in an epic fifteen minute long jam which left a speaker blown and Seiji on the other side of the bar with guitar strings flailing and the idea of music sounding in tune positively sell-out. The ensuing encore was redundant, the audience were much too tired – and the band couldn’t top the chaos of what they had played before. But the audience didn’t care, people continued to jump around out of time whilst only inhaling because the music was still much too fast for any sort of indie posturing, and the band played themselves to a glorious standstill.