Wolfmother 11/2/09

The night started with what I thought might be a bad omen, I found a nail in my tire about 15 minutes before I was going to leave for Atlanta.  So, I had to change it quickly and then take a shower which put me almost 45 minutes behind when I wanted to leave.  But never fear, I still arrived with plenty of time to spare.  Thankfully they didn't open the doors until almost 8.  Then the second surprise of the night was that we were shuffled downstairs at the Tabernacle to what used to be referred to as the Cotton Club.  Don't know what its called now and didn't even know they still had shows down there, just know its a great place to go to the bathroom because hardly anyone knows its down there.  The only other show I've seen below in the basement was the Toadies back on July 18, 2001(remember that Heather?!).  But I digress.  The first band, thenewno2, was fronted by George Harrison's son, Dhani.  A dude with his 10 year old son I was talking to informed me of that, but once he walked out on stage, there was no doubt who his father was.  It was like I had stepped into a time machine and was seeing George perform in his mid twenties with the hair of the latter part of his career.  They were kinda cool; different.  The second band on the bill was Heartless Bastards which I saw on Letterman several months ago and thought they were pretty decent for having a chick lead singer.  I still say "Out At Sea" is a groovy tune, even if it is a little repetitious.  She's no Alison Mosshart, but she's close.  She does play guitar on every song and attempts to channel Grace Slick's vocals occasionally but is sadly just not the most attractive girl in the room.  Although she is tiny and petite, which I dig, and she gives it everything she's got on stage.  Finally, on to Wolfmother.  The new album, Cosmic Egg, just dropped in stores last Tuesday so I had to cram it in and memorize it as best I could in 6 days.  That's the kind of studying the Big Show can sink his teeth into (I love third person).  Hell, I'm listening to it right now while writing.  I wasn't sure what to expect since lead singer/guitarist Andrew Stockdale fired the other original two members before this album was created.  After what happened with Days Of The New when front-man Travis Meeks fired everyone except the drummer and the band never really regained popularity, I was a little concerned.  Popularity still remains to be seen, but quality is still jaw dropping, in my opinion anyway.  I find it hard to believe you won't be at least intrigued after listening to the first 3 songs off the latest album.  The heavy 70s guitar riffs have more crunch than a Gator chomp on a Dawg's ass.  AAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOHHH!!!!  (Come on, I hardly talked trash during or after the game...)  Andrew's voice is what will probably turn a lot of people off because he is absolutely channeling Grace Slick and Robert Plant's vocal lovechild, but I can't get enough.  They opened with "Dimension" off their self-titled debut album to remind us what they always have in their back pocket since September 2006 was the last time they were in Atlanta.  Progressively through the night, though, Stockdale seemed to be getting more and more agitated with the sound.  He also had to tune his ax between almost every song which... dragged... the show... along.  The crowd became distracted within itself and I could tell it bothered him, but he never gave up on us.  Since the venue was so small, there were no barriers between him and the crowd which allowed him to interact with the fans up close and that helped the band regain full attention.  That and high energy tunes like "White Feather" (my personal fav off the new disc) and the fuzz-guitar drowned "10,000 Feet."  New drummer Dave Atkins, a portly fella, provided a percussion rich performance while tall and lanky rhythm guitarist(a position not employed by the original trio line up) Aidan Nemeth was almost forgettable standing off to the side, kind of in the dark, but still gave off musical body language while shredding.  Bassist/keyboardist Ian Peres never stopped jammin the entire time he was on stage and seems to be in a contest with Andrew to see who can have the thicker and more Medusa-like curly hair, which looks so rock n' roll I'll end up losing sleep thinking about it.  The Aussie's ended the night with "Joker & The Thief" while Ian raised his finger-clinched claws above his head, not to tickle, but to impale the ivories with every slamming strike.  I don't know what else to say:  SEE THIS BAND LIVE ON STAGE!