Turbowolf

22 November 2011

Upstairs At The Garage, London

 

With their debut album finally released on the eleventh of the eleventh of the eleventh, Turbowolf set off around the country on a headlining tour, of which tonight’s show at the intimate Upstairs room of the Garage was the final night.

 

With an electronic introduction, the band took to the stage (or should I say step!) with frontman Chris Georgiadis announcing, “I wanna start off as we mean to carry on”. With that, he clambered onto the crowd, hooked his legs around the lighting truss and hung down above the crowd with his arms folded like a bat.

 

Turbowolf Turbowolf

 

Ploughing into Ancient Snake, the crowd at the front turned into a sea of movement and the low stage made vantage pretty difficult. At either side of the stage guitarist Andy Ghosh and bassist Jeremy Dunham were flailing around with their instruments as drummer Chris Davis laid waste to his kit. The energy continued as Georgiadis demanded, “Let’s keep this thing rolling”, and the punky Seven Severed Heads followed.

 

Turbowolf’s sound cuts across punk, metal, psychedelia and garage rock. The melting pot they have created is not only innovative, but to their credit it really works. Live, they not only ably recreate the songs, but push them to another level, with an anarchistic approach that has you thinking the train could run of the rails but never does.

 

Georgiadis ventured out onto the crowd again during The Big Cut, this time taking his microphone and continuing to sing the song. Hands were held aloft to clap along to Dunham’s bass break in the song, which closed with Georgiadis declaring, “F**king hell London, we did not expect this!”

 

 

Turbowolf Turbowolf Turbowolf

 

With his catchphrase, “Let’s do this”, the quirky frontman led the band into Bag o’Bones before latest single and video song A Rose For The Crows sent the crowd nuts. The wall of noise verses broke down to catchy chorus’, with Sabbath like riffing closing out the song. Following that with earlier single Read & Write didn’t ease the mayhem with crowd surfers trying to copy Georgiadis and hook themselves around the lighting truss.

 

Deviating from their own material and back to the 1960s, Somebody To Love, made famous by Jefferson Airplane, is tweaked with the Turbowolf sound and slotted in well.

 

With only one album, which contains most of the tracks previously released on singles or EPs, it was never going to be a long set and the short, sharp shock treatment suits Turbowolf. Things Could Be Good Again and Let’s Die bring the evening to a sweaty close. Turbowolf are on a roll, I’d advise you to check out the album and catch them live.

 

Turbowolf setlist:

Ancient Snake / Seven Severed Heads / The Big Cut / Bag o’Bones / A Rose For The Crows / Read & Write / Somebody To Love / Things Could Be Good Again / Let’s Die

 

Turbowolf Turbowolf

   

 

LINKS:

www.myspace.com/turbowolfband