I know I said I was going away on vacation, but we don’t actually leave until Tuesday, and I spotted this video and felt compelled to share, so … fuckin’ sue me.
I went to go see explosive Japanese rock trio, Guitar Wolf, in about 1999 at CBGB, and they were entirely hilarious and amazing, but it was worryingly loud. Like, not just “my ears are sure gonna hurt tomorrow” loud, but more like “I think my fillings are dislodging themselves from my skull” loud or “I’m about to lose control of my bowels” loud. Mercifully, neither of those things happened, although that was also the same year I my Tinnitus revealed itself, so there may be a smoking gun in there, somewhere.
In any case, the below video might very well have been shot during the band’s same brief stay in New York City wherein I caught them at CB's, but it isn’t dated, so who knows? In any case here is Guitar Wolf practicing their nuanced, finesse-laden craft within the narrow confines of the ground floor of what, at the time, was Mondo Kim’s — the esoteric music and cinema super-store that held court on St. Marks Place before shuttering for good in …. fuck …. 2009.
Anyway, I love this video in that it captures both the rough-hewn, high-volume attack of the Guitar Wolf experience, but also because it brings me back to that room wherein I used to spend so much time perusing the racks.
Here in 2023, the space that was Mondo Kim’s is a lame video arcade with booze dubbed “Barcade.” Guitar Wolf, meanwhile, are STILL AT IT.
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