Wolf Eyes
Rocket Bar
Fri 23 June



Tonight was the first of three nights I would spend with Michigan power trio Wolf Eyes. I un-slept at airports, bled thru my socks, smoked myself silly and became one with the trio's brain-fucking sounds. The word of the weekend was brutal.

Five band bills are monstrous, detrimental to your health. Bitches Of Zeus opened, Wolf Eyes tipping glasses saying, "Totally schizophrenic. Made no sense!" My Sister The Cop blasted through a set of scungy synth-punk. The 'pop band on the bill' was also the most trebly. The attack hung in the air 'til True Radical Miracle burned a huge stinking hole in the Rocket Bar. Towering one-note blurs from the guitars were bludgeoned by the drummer's meaty cleavered banging, giant singer Grover lurking front of stage and exploding in the heat of the dirge.

National tour support trio Grey Daturas made dinosaur-sized turd-drone sound so good, enveloping the skin and massaging the tummy and anus. The band got heavier and heavier over the next two nights, slowing the songs down so as to resemble only mud, blood and brains smeared across Orange amps.

By the time Wolf Eyes ambled up the stage, we were ready for destruction. John Olson and Nate Young, both way over six feet tall, and headbanger Mike Connelly systematically obliterated the keen Adelaide crowd. 40 minutes of noise-chunder and thick thru-yr-body beats made escape futile. When vocalist Young hulked his long frame across stage, gargling spit, his eyes white, his bandmates cruised the ultimate low and high end frequencies, the sound more digitised and compacted than expected, as punishing as Whitehouse and Merzbow, but with even more fervent fist-pumping power. It's hard to believe but like Grey Daturas, Wolf Eyes got better and better over the next two nights. The Americans got looser, added even more layers, smoked even more PA systems. Not even an absolutely grueling touring schedule could slow down Wolf Eyes, each of them mad for music and despite all the leather, noise and doobies, sweet awesome humans.

My sincere thanks go out to the dedicated Adelaide crowd. The support has not gone unnoticed. Grey Daturas will soon be back with yet another massively wild American band. My lips are sealed.

Lenin Simos