They came, they saw, they rocked…eclectically! A clutch of bands, under the auspices of modern rock radio station KJEE, shook the Santa Barbara Bowl last weekend, proving that rock is not only still among the musical living, but as varied as ever.
On June 4, an enthusiastic (if not full capacity) Bowl audience embraced the diverse line-up, the most renowned of which was the riff-crunching Australian trio known as Wolfmother. The 16-year-old group brought the bottom with its primal metal as Alex Carapetis drummed like a killing machine, occasionally drifting from sturdy John Bonham into the double-kick stomp excesses of original Slayer drum monster Dave Lombardo. Carapetis totally delivered with the twitchy palpitations of “New Moon Rising.”
Singer/guitarist Andrew Stockdale and bassist/keyboardist Ian Peres were easily identifiable by a massive ’fro and bright red shirt, respectively.