Music > Live Reviews

Turbowolf at the Waterfront

15/12/14

If you want value for money then three up and coming British rock bands for under a tenner is not be to be sniffed at. A Monday night in December may not exactly be party night, but what a shame this excellent gig wasn’t graced with a slightly larger audience.

First up were God Damn for whom, thanks to their many shows in Norwich and releases on Gravy Records, this was practically a home town show. They were LOUD. Really loud. Floor shakingly, eye wateringly, chest hurtingly loud and for thirty minutes they beat me into submission. Guitarist and vocalist Thom has grown as a frontman since I last saw them at the Arts Centre back in January and of all the many two piece rock bands around at the moment, in Ash God Damn have easily the hardest hitting drummer. Perhaps the songs got lost a bit in the volume, but it sure was a thrilling start to the night.

Next up were Empress AD, who after a cursory listen to their music prior to the gig I’d decided weren’t really ‘my bag’. Live however they were a different proposition and impossible to ignore. They played a technical, progressive brand of metal, reminding me of bands like Pelican and really impressed with their excellent musicianship and total commitment. The crowd really got into them and I will definitely be giving their recent debut album a proper listen. Oh yeah, they were LOUD as well.

I saw Turbowolf play when they last visited Norwich a couple of years back and was keen to see how much they’d developed, especially as they still have yet to release a second album. All I can say is – WOW! From the minute they started playing I was completely blown away. Frontman Chris Georgiadis is a star, a proper showman exuding huge levels of confidence, and fronting a band this good, who can blame him? It wasn’t long before he was off the stage, running through the audience, handing the mic to us, and generally making sure everyone in the venue was fully involved. Turbowolf’s music is a mix of many styles – metal, psychedelia, pop, punk…I could go on, but they have huge commercial potential. The set was peppered with new songs which bode extremely well for the future, recent single Solid Gold is the best song I have seen performed live all year, current single Rabbit’s Foot is a hook laden riff monster and their cover of MGMT’s Electric Feel was a woozy psychedelic dirge. Oh yeah, they were also very very LOUD.

Their new album is out in April 2015 and I would suggest it is going to take Turbowolf to whole new levels of success; they had the aura of a band that knows their future is bright. It was easily one of the best sets of 2015 and collectively the loudest gig I have ever been to, and for a while there I thought that finally I was going to experience the hitting of the ‘brown note’. Some other time perhaps?