Wolfgang: Still howling

MANILA, Philippines - Listening to Wolfgang is always a combination of many sensations and emotions that is hard to put into words. While waiting to see the band do its sixth major Manila concert in almost four years, I was reacquainted with why I grew up holding on to each line of their lyrics and each riff of each song. It was nighttime, but the summer heat was still not letting up and for some reason, it heightened the experience. In between swigs of alcohol, the heat and the music of the band that I grew up listening to; there was certainly a connection that was rediscovered and galvanized through being part of what felt like a very important event.

Wolfgang’s “Plug and Play” concert held last May 15 at Whitespace in Makati forced fans to be who they were again back in the day.

Unlike in past concerts, the audience was standing up in front of an elevated performance stage. It felt like being in one of those college fairs but at a smaller and a relatively more secure scale. When you’re standing up and feeling the heat of the summer night, you have no choice but to just feel every stimulus that comes across your senses. Every note, every riff and every percussive drum strike feels different and more than just what it is. The lyrics to the songs become even more apparent in context. You have no choice but to just let the music engulf your whole physical and mental integrity and simply move to its irresistible cadence.

Due to the rarity of moments when the stars align to have Basti Artadi, Mon Legaspi, Manuel Legarda and new drummer Francis Aquino together in one place, it was often frustrating for fans in other parts of the country and those who are already based overseas to hear of yet another missed concert. While Wolfgang can’t definitely do a world tour to go through the dozens of major cities that probably have a strong number of Wolfgang fans, the band and their management team did the next best thing: the concert was streamed online as it happened in Makati to more than 2,000 subscribers. It’s not as good as a concert in New York, London and Singapore for the hundreds of fans there but at least, there’s a workable alternative for now.

The crowd is certainly a different crowd from what you see in the Chicosci and Hale concerts. Wolfgang is a band that rock aficionados of all ages could enjoy especially now that the rock scene is in a bit of a rut. Unfortunately, the unavailability of the band’s old albums in record stores make it hard to obtain copies of the band’s past releases.

Wolfgang started the set with one of the keepers from the first album; What Grows In Your Garden Now. When I first heard this song during the University of the Philippines Fair almost a decade ago, the band used the guitar intro to Rage against the Machine’s Bulls on Parade to spruce it up and add interest to track — not that it needed anymore augmentation of any sort. Then, just like before, Wolfgang churned out song after familiar song and this made the crowd erupt in raucous approval.

Some songs were received better than others. I’ve always noticed in the Wolfgang concerts of the post-Wolf Gemora era that songs from “Black Mantra” often fly over the heads of people. The album was the last piece of work that the band pushed out before their sudden break up of sorts and maybe it didn’t get the necessary support from all the fans. All things considered though, “Black Mantra” is a superb and solid album that could hold a candle to any Wolfgang album that was produced before it.

For the “Plug and Play” set list, the band played two songs off “Black Mantra.” Quite fittingly, the two songs on the set list were two songs released from the album — Meckam and No Falter.

No Falter still strikes me as the most powerful song by Wolfgang in terms of communicating the raw struggle of living in an uncertain and ever-changing world. A better song that touches on the hopelessness of the human condition has never been written. The song captures the emotion of an angst-ridden man who has witnessed and suffered through the worst of injustices. Of course, this moment of nirvana doesn’t come while the song is playing — this just clicks into my head as the last strains of the music drifts into recent history. While the song is on, all I could do was to jump around, try my best to dislocate my neck and somehow make sure that I stay standing while I haphazardly thrash my weight around.

The play list was not as ridiculously juiced up as the “Hit & Run” concert at 19 East held during December 2009; but taking the summer heat into consideration, the 19 songs that Wolfgang prepared for the concert was more than enough to at least ease the longing for the times when Wolfgang was still easily caught in gigs on a weekly basis.

Just like in “Hit & Run” all studio albums were represented in the play list. Ironically, the only song from the eponymous first album not performed during the concert was Arise — easily one of the band’s anthemic hits and a track that has been played by the band in all of the concerts they’ve played in. The newest album “Villains” was also featured through the playing of Ibrahim and Diaspora Mama.

 As always, one of the songs that had the entire crowd singing along was Mata ng Diyos. It never fails to get the people singing their hearts out and it’s clear that Basti and the rest of the band are more than happy to see that the hundreds who have gone to watch the concert still know the words to the songs by heart.

The most off beat choice by the band was the playing of the so-called Le Fusillier’s Theme a hidden track off the Wurm album. Surprisingly, a good people still knew the song despite its relative obscurity. Wolfgang also did a very interesting take on Metallica’s Master of Puppets from the album of the same name that was released back in the mid ’80s.

As the afterglow of the concert faded along with the last few familiar notes of Natutulog Kong Mundo (the last song for the night), then came the realization that another Wolfgang gig had come to an end and the wait begins anew. It always is a bittersweet experience since reality is almost suspended when the music is playing. The end of the concert reminded all fans in the venue that, yes, Wolfgang now exists in this form — and not in the way that it once was.

As Basti said during the first “Alive” 2007 concert, “Worlds end, but tonight, we can pretend.” It sure feels like that every time Wolfgang takes the stage. There’s a feeling that the moment you’re having is but a borrowed moment and an almost supernatural conspiracy that allows people who still can’t move on from what happened in 2002. It still is a painful experience but at least fans have these concerts that remind them that everything is still sort of alright.