A Rebirth at the Met: Wolfgang roars back
I can still remember the first time I saw Wolfgang in a live set. It was 2001 – the album Black Mantra had just been released and as a sixteen year old who was living in Manila for the first time, I was very eager to go to as many gigs as I can watch the best bands of the day. I have always been partial towards Wolfgang, I listened to them back in high school and I was really hooked because of how effective their lyrical imagery is. The band is simply unafraid to take their thoughts and draw allusions to things that may sound weird (or in my words, biblical), controversial (think Heavenspent from Black Mantra) or downright strange (the title track and yes, the album Semenelin).
The first time I saw ‘em, I was in Mayric’s – a bar that has been renamed to Sazi’s today. It’s a very small place. It’s quite a humble (yet hallowed) place that has hosted many rock legends – Wolfgang is easily one of the biggest ones in that bar.
Now that Basti has decided to stay in the country for good, we can put the long years that Wolfgang pretty much ceased to exist as we knew them in the 90s. Sure, there were around a couple of shows a year to somehow quench the yearning for a Wolfgang fix but real junkies would never get enough of it.
Wolfgang may have been together for 20 years now but the band is still in very unfamiliar in a lot of ways. The band “left” the game around the time that the rules were changing and the consumer profile of the devourers of music was in flux. There was certainly a revolution regarding what was considered to be the “hip” mainstream sound. There were still strong purveyors of hard classic rock in Wolfgang and Razorback but the newer and more novel tracks of Slapshock, Cheese and Greyhoundz were starting to get more airplay. The new generation of rock fans were shuffling into the mix and for the most part, it felt like Wolfgang was not in their musical diet.
Fast forward to June 18, 2011. Wolfgang is fresh off almost a dozen concerts that got them running around the country as one of the top draws in Tanduay’s First Five concert series. The band may have been around for a while but they’re still in the process of growing and learning as a band. The new set of circumstances have certainly made it seem like Wolfgang is a new band – that just happens to have over 70 awesome songs in their rich discography.
While Wolfgang concerts may be few and far in between compared to the other big name bands who dominated the past ten years, no other local band does concerts on the same scale that Wolfgang does ‘em in. In almost all their concerts in Manila (mostly in San Juan and a couple in Quezon City, Paranaque and Makati), the sets have been nothing short of epic – both in terms of quality and quantity. Wolfgang is so used to playing around 20-song sets. The sets are so good that even if you’ve heard one of every three Wolfgang songs ever written, you still want more and the concert still feels like it ended too soon. I honestly think that no other band does what Wolfgang does – the only concerts that I’ve been to that had more that 24 songs were the ones by Deftones and Incubus back in 2004.
Wolfgang at the Met was no exception, in fact, I’ll be willing to say that it was probably the best of ‘em all so far. A lot of it had to do with the fact that it was THE MET.
I don’t know about you but as a young man who used to live in the Manila area, I’ve always thought that the Met was a nice building. It’s right next to one of the busiest bridges in the country – not to mention one of the most dangerous – I know of at least three people who have been mugged around these parts. The art deco influence is undeniable when looking at the theater’s very impressive facade. While much of it was restored back in 1980′s, it never really regained its rightful place as a strong stalwart that it had before the war ravaged Manila in the 1940′s.
I had no idea what the Met looked like from the inside. Its old glory could still be seen with its high ceiling and perfect arch. The ceiling was tattered but the construction and the design of the place still shone through. And when Wolfgang started playing, it was evident that the construction wasn’t just done to be aesthetically pleasing, functionally in terms of acoustics, the place really fulfilled the brief and performed spectacularly. Yes, the Met is over 80 years old but it sure was made with a lot of thought and effort. It would be a shame to let it go to waste and convert the area to just another condominium or parking lot.
On one hand, outside of having a concert right next to the burning caldera of an active volcano (wait, they did do this for the Legaspi leg!), there is nothing more hard core than what band, the management and the City of Manila did. Sure, there were many restrictions and there was considerable moisture in the mosh pit, and I do take full responsibility for shaking and breaking the wooden platform but having a big name rock band play in a legendary building that still stood in defiance of time and current circumstances sure was an excellent human interest angle. I assure you, 95% of the people inside that theater have never set foot inside the theater and just like myself, they were probably as shocked and sad that the theater looks like that now.
It was hard to focus on the music and not feel the energy that the venue was throwing back. This was a venue made for the best theater plays and the most attended operas in other shores. And here it is, eighty years later serving as a hard rock venue as an effort to have it’s last shot – or at least a reprieve as it goes to the last throes of its existence.
Or if you don’t want to be melodramatic, it was a perfect excuse to be in a very cool venue. You don’t need to know about history to know that a building that looks like the Met is rare nowadays. People no longer build big venues like the Met this way.
The set list for the concert was a dream. As always, it was a good mix of old reliables, new songs and even obscure tracks like Twist of Lime and the seldomly-played instrumental that featured Manuel Legarda’s deft guitar playing Blue 11 from the Semenelin album. The band also played two covers of Megadeth and Iron Maiden.
The band put the spotlight on the literary genius of bassist Mon Legaspi by playing the four Tagalog songs from Serve in Silence. Basti Artadi actually called it a rock opera. “Hiwaga” is a song that I’ve only heard twice live – as someone who has watched every concert since Alive ’07 and a good handful of the shows that happened since 2001, that’s a very low number. It’s such a cryptic song of going against upbringing and finding enlightenment and purpose – it can be as dark or as uplifting as you want it to be.
The theme then turns to one of introspection and frustration with “Anino”. Again, it’s something very cryptic. In this sense, the song could be a very serious bout with a guilty conscience or just a really deep and profound existential depression that takes over most of us. The helplessness is very evident in the persona’s character and the song ends with neither closure nor answers.
The third song “Tulisan” is certianly one of the most aggressive and hard hitting songs in the Wolfgang arsenal. Again, the band taps into a very primal and familiar emotion but still does it tastefully without sounding like too immature or petty. It could be easily as political as it was personal.
The last song is “Ilang Alon Ang Dala”. In my opinion, this is the most underrated out of all the songs of Wolfgang. The theme and the setting is very unique – a dead man walking in his final hour. There’s a sense of inevitability and a great fear of the unknown that creeps up within me whenever this song is played. The big shifts in tempo compliment the massive emotional upheavals that are inherently present within the track as well the same emotions that it could potentially stir up within the mind of each listener.
The track that followed the emotionally charged set of four songs was “No Falter” – again, another underrated song that has great potential live. It was great to hear a lot of people sing along to this track. The Black Mantra album was not as pushed as hard as the other Wolfgang albums so it’s great that a lot of people still ended up knowing the killer tracks from the release. Hearing the Wolfgang nation boom through the wide spaces of the Metropolitan Theater was a surreal experience.
As with any Wolfgang concert, it was a massive sing along. From Anino to Mata ng Diyos to Natutulog Kong Mundo to the encore Arise, the crowd was loud and at times, even louder than Basti. In fact, Basti had no choice but to let the crowd know good their singing and their memories are. These songs were once just random neuronal firing inside the heads of four people and now, thousands of people know the sound and words by heart. I’m sure it’s an awesome experience for the band to see just how many people appreciate their music.
In a lot of ways, I somehow think that I’m not doing justice to how awesome the night was but this is one of those things that you just have to be present to realize the gravity of the event. The lights and sounds were awesome. The backdrop (while clearly xtian-y) was really cool-looking.
It was another momentous occasion.
It’s even more special coz I got to take good friends of mine to the concert. The guy on the extreme left is a good friend of mine from the same land as Nightwish and Lordi. He’s been here half a year and he has devoured local music like a music addict. He’s seen many gigs over the past months and since he’s friends with me, he’s definitely had the crash course when it comes to Wolfgang’s music.
The guy on the extreme right is my scuba diving buddy and along with the aforementioned Finnish friend (wow, I really choose to not mention names, eh?) will be traveling with me to Dumaguete and Bacolod two months from now to see Wolfgang rock Negros.
Wolfgang will always be Wolfgang. The band and the music will grow with all its fans. Most of the fans may need a breather every now and then but the music is still the same tunes that permeated through the earphones of Walkmen from the 1990s. Wolfgang exists in a class of its own. No current rock band has the same stature and the same portfolio as the band – and yet thanks to social media, they continue to be one of the most accessible bands. These guys do listen to their fans.
Photos used in this post were by Mari Aqruiza. 
Thanks Mari!
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