An Uncontrollable Urge - Guitar Wolf / Cheap Time at the Kitting Factory

14th May 2011

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Guitar Wolf / Cheap Time at the Kitting Factory

Huey Lewis was right you guys.

Let’s take this in order. Cheap Time opened up last night at the Knitting Factory, and they blazed through a set full of some bitchin’ tunes with roughly zero applause breaks. The three-piece combo of garage-thunder fucking killed it, loud as hell, but tight enough that the volume actually works in their favor, rather than masking a lack of skill as is so often the case. Cheap Time made me realize that I had forgotten that everyone else had forgotten how to fucking rock. And their drummer looks like Jack Black.

Then, Guitar Wolf. Drum and Bass Wolves appear first, and started things up, getting everyone all amped up for some nut-crushing rock. As soon as Guitar Wolf took the stage and yelled out “HEY NEW YAWKU!”, everything, as expected, exploded. Not literally, I should add, because that might not be unexpected at a Guitar Wolf performance. This one was pure rock, no pyro, no special effects. There was, however, a machine gun (which looked an awful lot like a guitar), and Seiji (Guitar Wolf) shot everyone. The best part was when he went over to U.G. (Bass Wolf) and pointed out a specific audience member to him. U.G. gave that guy the finger, and Seiji shot him. Well fucking done.

The World’s Greatest Jet Rock’n’Roll Band (sorry Joan) annihilated for about ninety minutes, including two encores, causing a ~~tsunami~~ river of sweat to pour from Seiji’s face in a manner that should have been absolutely revolting (and probably was, if you were closer to the front) but just came off as a symbol of pure Japanese punk spirit. Musical highlights of their set included their cover of the MC5’s “Kick out the Jams” (“KICK OUT JAMS, MAHFUCKAH!!!”), Link Wray’s “Rumble,” Guitar Wolf’s own “Can-Nana Fever,” and a Muddy Waters-influenced blues jam whose name I don’t know, but I will express some minor disappointment that they did not play their fucking insane cover of “Summertime Blues.” Who cares, though? They killed it.

Seiji was very into the crowd, and maybe the best part of the show was watching his interactions with Americans with seemingly little experience communicating with Japanese people who are into rockabilly dancing. He pulled up a fat dude to play guitar on one song, and he did surprisingly well; he left the stage a fucking rock star, and I was 100% jealous. Later on, he pulled a couple on stage to dance like Elvis with him, and they could not do it. The dude tried, but the girl just jumped up and down like a retarded retard. About ten minutes was spent trying to get them to dance right, and eventually they were sent back into the crowd.

The silliest crowd participation? Two words: human pyramid.