Hurricane hits the stage with Guitar Wolf!

October 14, 2013  •  Leave a Comment

Guitar Wolf Flyer When I heard that Guitar Wolf was coming to town I was super stoked! I immediately wrote to the band in hopes that they would put me on the photo pass list. A short time later I received a reply from Guitar Wolf that I has hoping for. I got on the list!

 

Guitar Wolf is an ultra high energy "Jet rock 'n' roll" trio from Nagasaki Japan. Their garage rock sound and leather clad attire takes us back to the days of CBGB and bands like the Ramones. Words cannot truly describe these guys nor the show they were about to perform. You simply just had to be there.   

The lights went dim. A projector kicked on shooting footage of Guitar Wolf's movie Wild Zero across a projector screen dangling in front of the stage.  Something crazy was about to happen and that something was going to last the entire set, with no breaks and through two encores.

The screen went up and Guitar Wolf took the stage. Front man Seiji (Guitar Wolf) took a pose, head down, Arm in the air. "1,2,3,4!" Seiji shouts! The set started hard, fast and loud as hell! Bass player UG (Bass Wolf) hammered out true rock base lines reminiscent of classic punk while drummer Toru (Drum Wolf) laid down fast paced beats that didn't stop the entire night!

In no time singer Seiji was in a sweat dripped frenzy. Jumping, posing and rolling, Seiji created a hurricane of body, sweat and gear! Mics bounced off the front row, stands toppled, cords were flying. It was a stage apocalypse! The roadie was no noob to this frantic performance. This guy was all over the place, untangling cords, grabbing mics, plugging and unplugging. Much respect for the man!

The best part of the show was when Seiji would get the crowed involved. Guitar Wolf are known to orchestrate human pyramids, bat things out into the audience and even pull people on stage to play instruments. This adds so much depth and personality to their performance.

Despite deflecting equipment, dodging exploding beer cans, getting kicked in the head from crowd surfers and often times getting crushed against the stage... I manged to come out relatively unscathed and more importantly with some great images.

Originally I was going to shoot this show without flash and rely solely on stage lighting but the dominant red lighting put a quick end to that plan. After several test shots, I just wasn't getting the images I wanted. So I setup for rear sync (ISO 500, 1/4, f8) and fired away. The Tamron 28-75mm served well on my D700 offering plenty of width and length to my shots. Since I didn't bring a flash, I ended up using the cameras on board flash which, surprisingly, was quite effective.

I had a freakn' blast you guys! The next time Guitar Wolf comes to town make sure you go see them. I'm telling ya, its an experience you will not soon forget!

You can see more photos from this show in the Live Music section of my gallery.


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