THE WOLFMEN London, May 30th 2008


THE WOLFMEN

London
333 club
30th May

4/5

As the setting for a low-key live outing for ex-Ants men Marco Pirroni and Chris Constantinou and their Wolfmen, the 333 comes with its own distinctive Hoxton ambience: flock wallpaper, charm-school flunker security, hostile restauranteurs threatening to shut down the gig, and a dance floor that sags alarmingly as The Wolfmen take the stage with their surging version of Brian Eno’s Needle In The Camel’s Eye. For a man who claims to hate live work, Pirroni’s giving a good impression otherwise, wringing torrents of glam-rock flash’n’feedback from his yellow Gibson, while Constantinou holds centre stage, belting it out on bass and lead vox with an innate rock-starry sense of assurance. It’s a concise set in the classic ‘leave ‘em wanting more’ mold, a quickfire slam-bang of cuts from the forthcoming album including Love Is A Dog and Whack This Bass, a distinctive re-write of Lou Reed’s long-lost garage nugget Do The Ostrich and a romp through Hawkwind’s proto-punk standard Silver Machine for which the band are lent an extra helping of exoticism with the presence of sitar siren Bishi. Closing matters with a punk-raga hybrid meltdown, The Wolfmen bare their teeth and melt into the night again all too briefly; but with their debut album out in August and more live dates to follow, the gnashing is clearly about to start in earnest.

Hugh Gulland

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