Howling at the moon last Sunday was mandatory in Bali as international hit rock band Wolfmother took to the stage at GWK for Soundrenaline 2015.
The festival—Bali’s first true rock festival—featured a wealth of Indonesian talent, and at Rp 100,000 for a two-day ticket, it was just so cheap that it would be rude not to go!
Wolfmother has had had their ups and downs over their time together with splitting up, getting back together, and splitting up again, but tonight on this small island paradise in a Indonesia-based festival bankrolled by a cigarette company, they came together once more to put the funk back in funkadelic. Andrew Stockdale the lead singer had his trademark afro and everyone was dressed like they just stepped out of Woodstock.
The band’s sound is probably the closest music has got to bands like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath since the 70s. Initially they kicked ass, and had a tight set with shredding solos and killer riffs. The largely Indonesian crowd lapped it up and actually made a circle pit which is the first time I have ever seen this in Bali. They kicked off with “Dimension” and then followed up with “White Unicorn”. But by the third track, things were heading south fast with their top ten single “Woman”.
First a speaker blew on the stage and the band became far too bassy and distorted. The good thing about Indonesian crowds (don’t take this the wrong way) is the fact they are generally so short and quiet that you can shout out what you want and be heard and seen by the band. I shouted “You blew a speaker!” about four times, then the lead singer actually shouted back at me obviously a bit pissed off that I had dared to speak out. “Thank you, we know,” was his response.
I got a drink which cost more than the ticket, and waited for them to resume. The problems, however, did not go away. Initially they were supposed to play earlier at 11 pm, but instead came onstage at 12:45 pm which meant after a few songs and the speaker problem, a lot of the audience was heading for the hills. They sorted the speaker for the next track, but by the end of the song that blew too; then there was a guitar problem and that had to be changed, and to top it off there was technical difficulty with the bass level on the keyboard!
But soldiers as they are, Wolfmother carried the show on and battled through. The level of musicianship was second to none, and the bassist Chris Ross also played the keyboard using his feet while rocking the bass: simply incredible! By the end of the show with distortion now ruining the sound quality (and my hearing), there were probably only three hundred or so diehard fans left watching. To wrap it all up, Wolfmother played their most famous track ‘The Joker and the thief’ last. In the end, the band said goodnight and Chris Ross actually kicked over his keyboard in anger!
All in all, despite the technical problems, the gig was great and Wolfmother, whatever lineup they go with on the day, is still one of the best new school rock acts out there, and if that’s what it takes to sell cigarettes I’m going to go light up!
Photo at the top: Reza Widhi/Soundrenaline
