Review: Gnarwolves – Rescue Rooms – 7 December 2014

With work commitments messing me about, I ended up arriving at Rescue Rooms at 8pm, which meant that unfortunately I missed out on support act PUBLIC DOMAIN. However, chatter from the crowd spoke that they put on a great performance.

So, first up for me was American post-rock / indie band PRAWN. After a little bit of messing about with equipment, they finally started their set, to a busy audience, and a lot of nodding heads. It was the perfect starter to a night that was going to be, and was, incredibly wild. Their songs swung from post-rock build ups to classic American indie hooks, all infused together lovely. After a strong half an hour set, Prawn finished to great applause, and are one band I’ve definitely gone to check out after the show.

Then came the main feature act: GNARWOLVES. These guys need little introduction: the three piece produce skater-punk songs that make you move. And, even though they had recently released their debut LP (after many EPs and splits), the pressure of playing a new album to a fresh audience can always be quite daunting. But alas, when the dudes took stage, and guitarist Thom Weeks tells the audience that they weren’t informed of a barrier (damn prevention of easy-flowing stage diving…), they kicked off with new track ‘From Bottle To Bottle.; This was then immediately accompanied by everyone (myself included) singing along. As soon as the drums and the bass kicked in everyone just went wild. Playing a good range of tracks from both their older discog to the new self-titled album, and ending with an encore of “We Want The Whip!” and “A Gram Is Better Than A Damn” of their EP Cru, the setlist itself was flawless.

For 45 minutes, everything from crowd surfing to mosh pits occurred almost constantly. There was great banter from stage to audience (and vice verse) and it definitely made it one of the best gigs I’d attended in a long time. Even moments when someone dropped a glass, to have a whole audience react shouting “whey!” just made the gig something that was just too damn fun, and I can’t wait to get back in the pit the next time they tour.

Live Review by Joshua Hall