Guitar Wolf

In a Rome already gripped by the coils of an early summer, a handful of die-hards crowd into the indoor room at Monk Club to witness an even more incendiary live show. Straight out of the postmodern madness of the Land of the Rising Sun, the trio known as Guitar Wolf knock back one beer after another while waiting to take the stage, as Rome's own Poo Poo Talks treat the crowd to their set of garage and synth-rock. Past 10pm, Guitar, Drum and Bass Wolf take the stage to down their last can in one go, crushing it with their bare hands before setting the sonic gunpowder alight.

"MORE JET" is the first single from the Japanese band's new album, rock'n'roll blasted at full volume through deafening guitars and searing choruses. From the cover of "Long Tall Sally" to the sixties tribalism of "Kan-Nana Fever", Guitar Wolf seem like alien creatures landed on this planet to make noise with the most classic of "one, two, three, four!". On "Red Rockabilly" the bassist dives straight into the crowd to be carried left and right, while the following "Jet Generation" tests everyone's hearing with a wall of punk'n'roll sound. The trio obviously offers nothing new stylistically, but wins the crowd over with an exaggerated level of adrenaline, like a car hurtling at full speed towards a cliff edge. With the more reckless and devastating approach of old-style punk, the trio rips through songs played at a hundred miles an hour in an obviously packed setlist, made up of several covers of classics like "Summertime Blues" and "Kick Out The Jams".

Some audience members are invited on stage to play at being guitar heroes, to general applause, before the set closes on the rockabilly distortions of "All Through The Night Buttobase!!" and, in the brief encore, on the raw, noisy garage-blues of "Fujiyama Attack". This was, without doubt, one of the wildest live shows of an already scorching Roman spring.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google