The Carnival of Carl!: April 2012

Last night I saw Guitar Wolf. It was AMAZING. The kind of amazing that makes you wish people didn't use the word amazing for things that are not this amazing. They were the absolute definition of non-stop face melting punk rock, and this is one of those shows that is going to go down in my book as one of the best evar.

The strange thing to me, though, is how small the crowd was. This is an international giant of booze-and-punk-filled-motorcycle-rebellion, a band that sells out all across the world. I think Rapid City really didn't know what it had last night.

Here are some videos of Guitar Wolf in action. They are hard to record, because unlike other bands, you don't really know when to stop, or want to stop. They played non stop, balls to the wall, dripping with sweat and spitting beer all over, for over an hour. You can see our Rapid City circle pit alive and well in silhouette in front of the stage, and the band even wore the pit out. By the end of the set the moshers were only circling for a couple bars before stopping to rest.

Also of note, guitar wolf's manager and the guys from The Transistors seemed really entertained by the way we dance here. I couldn't tell if they were just intrigued and amused or actively mocking us, but a few times I saw them try to do some of the kick-step-skanking back by the sound board. They never entered the pit, though. The only ones who did that were Guitar Wolf and their merch/roadie guy.

Here is Seiji performing a second encore. I was the only one in front of the stage when he started up. I just stood there drinking it up for a minute, but then thought to myself "I should probably record this" and I'm glad I did.