And as if Hans Condor’s opening set couldn’t be topped, Guitar Wolf came on from Japan and commanded the stage for the next 75 minutes like three headed King Ghidorah leaving a path of destruction through San Diego.
Before they played one note, singer/guitarist Seiji stood there chugging a Sapporo for a few minutes.
Then they proceeded to blast away with their very raw punk rock sound. My ears are still ringing. And like Hans Condor, they did not only one thing I’ve never seen a band do before, but TWO things I’ve never seen a band do before (and I’ve seen thousands of performances).
First of which was a thumb wrestling match between 3 or 4 people in the front row. The winner, this girl next to me, got pulled up onstage. Seiji would not accept “no” for an answer. Pulled her right up and gave her his guitar. I could hear her say “But I don’t know how to play!” and he said “It doesn’t matter!”, showed her where to put her fingers on the top strings and they played the rest of the song with her on guitar! We’re talking at least 5 minutes! Seiji even did a stage dive while she was playing. Didn’t sound too bad either as she got used to it. It was basically the definition of punk rock: freedom to do anything! Just do it! Who else can say that the first time you ever played in a band (or even picked up a guitar) was onstage with Guitar Wolf?! She can!
Then later on in the set, ANOTHER thing I’ve never seen before happened! I’ve seen people play drums in the middle of the Casbah floor before. Ok. Yeah. But NOT having the whole drum kit moved to do so in the MIDDLE OF A SONG! Yes. They were playing a song. During the song, a roadie and drummer Takuro started moving parts of the drumkit into the middle of the Casbah floor. And while the song was still going on, continued drumming and playing the rest of the song on the middle of the floor. Never seen drums moved before during the middle of a song! They played one or two more songs on the floor before finishing the set.
This whole night was just about the punkest thing I’ve seen in awhile. Incredible night which some people will be talking about for years, and others will have the memory of a lifetime. On the way back to the car, a violent but jovial old punk rocker told my wife he liked her style.
All pictures and video by Ted Tarris unless otherwise noted.
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