Review & photos by Andrew Bansal
July 24th 2014, House Of Blues Sunset Strip, West Hollywood CA: Australian rockers Wolfmother embarked on a short US West Coast run with support act Electric Citizen and played the first show of this tour at a packed House Of Blues Sunset Strip in West Hollywood last night in front of a large gathering of excited fans. The band’s third LP ‘New Crown’ took a long time coming after the 2009 effort ‘Cosmic Egg’ and was finally released in March this year. Wolfmother are currently out presenting some of this new material live, along with a selection of the best from the first two records. I saw this band open for ‘Slash & friends’ at the Avalon five years back and haven’t had a chance to see them ever since, but last night’s performance of theirs reinstated the strong impression they formed on the audience on that eventful night of November 22 2009.
But first up, it was Cincinnati, Ohio’s fledgling female-fronted heavy rock quartet Electric Citizen taking the stage at 8:30 for a 30-minute set of righteous Sabbath worship. With a barrage of Gibson SG-fueled riffs, groovy foot-stomping rhythms and vintage rock vocals, Electric Citizen clearly sounded like a band immersed deep in British psychedelia and classic blues rock influences, and exuded a vibe very fitting to the Los Angeles/US West Coast atmosphere. Vocalist Laura Dolan’s voice and stage presence gave the band the maniacally edgy, spastic personality that was so instantly associated with any early Black Sabbath live performance back in the day.
Electric Citizen ended their set with a song called ‘Light Years Beyond’ which was my favorite of the lot, owing to its vocal melody lines and lively rhythm. Besides enjoyable music and a great live show, the band also boasts of some excellently designed t-shirts and other merch items. Immediately following the end of their set, there was a queue of people waiting to make purchases at their merch stand, a telling sign of a successful first LA outing for Electric Citizen.
(More Electric Citizen photos from the show included in the gallery at the bottom of this post)
Electric Citizen links: website | facebook | twitter | instagram | bandcamp
After a half-hour wait, Wolfmother arrived on stage and rocked it for a solid 80 minutes, much to the delight of every single fan of theirs present under this roof. Right from the get go, with songs like ‘Dimension’ and ‘New Moon Rising’, Wolfmother were on fire and with the third song ‘Woman’ in particular, they had the crowd bouncing. They benefitted from this tremendous start and went on to present a variety of material from all three albums, well selected and placed in an apt order to make for a set of non-stop rock ‘n roll stomp.
The triumvirate of Andrew Stockdale (guitar/vocals), Ian Peres (bass/keys) and Vin Steele (drums) was in its prime element as all three musicians put their best foot forward, individually and collectively. They let the music do all the talking as there was very little of it from Stockdale between songs, and the set flowed from song to song with no stoppages which made it all the more enjoyable for the audience. Even though Wolfmother’s music is not the kind you’d typically associate with mosh pits and crowd surfing, there were plenty of crowd surfers to be seen during the set as everyone on the general admission floor seemed to be in great spirits, basking in the great rock show they were fortunate to be witnessing.
The back-and-forth with the lineup changes and the temporary split seems to be firmly behind Wolfmother now, and they’re back to doing what they do best, entertaining fans with their brand of hallucinogenic woodstock rock, and now is as good a time as any to see them live.
Check out a full gallery of 34 Electric Citizen and Wolfmother photos from the show below, or view it here if you’re on a non-Flash device:
Wolfmother links: website | facebook | twitter | instagram
Remaining Tour Dates:
Jul 25 – Las Vegas, NV – The Cosmopolitan (The Pool)
Jul 26 – Tempe, AZ – Marquee Theatre
Jul 27 – Santa Ana, CA – The Observatory
Jul 28 -San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
Jul 30 – Portland, OR – Roseland Theater
Jul 31 – Seattle, WA – Neptune
Aug 01 – Spokane, WA – Knitting Factory Concert House
Aug 02 – Penticon, Canada – Boonstock Music Festival (Wolfmother only)
House Of Blues Sunset Strip links: website | facebook | twitter | instagram