Live Review: We Are Wolves at the Knitting Factory [12.13.07]

December 13th was an epic night. I managed to catch three shows and also had the experience of getting into a cab whose driver took me three blocks in the wrong direction before trying to turn the wrong way up Broadway when I told him to turn around! Getting back to the music, though, it was really a great evening. The first stop, and subject of this review, was the Knitting Factory to see the Montreal band We Are Wolves.

WAW is made up of Alexander Ortiz (vox/bass/guitar), Vincent Levesque (synths/drum machine/vox), and Antonin Marquis (drums/percussion) and they play an amazing (mystically enhanced!) blend of darkly-tinted post-punk dance music, in both French and English. Unfortunately I arrived a bit late and missed the first couple of songs, but came in right as the band was launching into "Teenage Bats and Anthropology." I've been listening to WAW lately, and have really liked their album so I was definitely looking forward to this show and was disappointed I missed the first half of their set. I was not disappointed in their live act, though this was the first time I had ever seen them play, but I was surprised by how similar to their recorded album the music sounded. Normally bands sound fairly different in a room larger than my headphones, but WAW held it together and really sounded spectacular. I was, however, anticipating a bit more venom in their live show.

In any case, WAW quickly followed up with "Vietnam" and "Coconut Night," both songs off their current release Total Magique (Dare to Care; September 2007). The band members were solid, made no mistakes, and even managed to banter a bit with the crowd in French. I think the best aspect of seeing live music is being able to watch how musicians interact with their audience, and this was no exception. To see Ortiz, in a red and black plaid lumberjack shirt and mohawk-verging-on-mullet flirt with the audience in a quintessentially French way (giddy with applause, showing off, yet with style and reserve) totally cracked me up. Perhaps my amusement results from having grown up in the Northwest where lumberjacks were big, burly, axe-wilding, testosterone-exuding rednecks... wait, minus the big and burly, I just described Alex Ortiz perfectly. WAW certainly exude testosterone.

Sadly, the show ended soon after I arrived (I only got to hear five songs), but it was enough to make me a converted fan of the band. I think that these guys are fun to listen to, fun to watch onstage, and also accessible to a wide range of people. Their music is post-punk dance rock with simple, yet sharp lyrics. The last song they played was "Total Magique," en français, and I think we were all sad when it ended. Come back and play for us again soon!

[Photos by Cecilia Song]