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Review: DeWolff, The Louisiana – ‘Seriously impressive’
The Dutch three-piece rock and blues band DeWolff holds the record (pun not intended) for the shortest studio-to-store vinyl pressing in the world, taking just 2 hours, 59 minutes and 38 seconds to transform a 20-minute live recording, Rosita Rápida, into vinyl in 2023.
Their headline set at The Louisiana doesn’t involve trying to beat the clock; in fact, time seems to stop as they turn the room into a blues joint.
I’m especially grateful for the escapism that this music brings right now, as I’ve arrived with a crutch and brace due to a knee injury.
is needed now More than ever
The Louisiana team and my fellow gig-goers couldn’t have been more accommodating, making sure I was ready to rock and could see properly, albeit from a not very rock & roll chair.
Because Bristol is a stylish city, I can’t help but mention the brilliant fashion choices of both our headliner and support act.
The DeWolff look is Western-style black shirts and flared trousers littered with hand-embroidered patches (think snakes, skulls and cowgirls).
Support band Silveroller goes for 70s influences, with bell bottom jeans, shaggy haircuts, and impossibly tight shirts accessorised with tons of silver rings and bracelets that wouldn’t look out of place rocking out at long-closed local venues.
The overall effect of pairing these bands isn’t just impressive in fashion terms, but it gives the night a definite time capsule feel, audience smartphones aside.
Slick solos from Silveroller’s paisley-clad guitarist take you straight back to the days of old-school rock and roll (think Free, Yes and Cream), particularly on Come On, Come In, and a deft cover version of The Box Tops’ song The Letter.
DeWolff doesn’t lazily copy from classic blues and Americana sounds – it takes the basic principles and shakes them up, mixing in gospel, R&B and psychedelic rock, naming influences like Al Green, Sam Cooke and Led Zeppelin.
Americana is hugely popular in the Netherlands, and with so many albums to their name (including several blistering live recordings), the DeWolff guys have surely hit on the right formula.
Robin Piso’s Hammond organ playing really helps songs like Night Train and Will O’ The Wisp resonate. You can hear flavours of contemporary blues and rock acts in the songs, too; with hints of Jack White, Reef, The Black Crowes (who they have opened for) and The Wanton Bishops, particularly on Heart Stopping Kind of Show and epic closing number Rosita.
The audience spans about five decades, from cool older fans up the front who remember rock and blues bands in the 60s and 70s, to willowy twenty-somethings with septum piercings, all glued to lead singer and guitarist Pablo van de Poel’s Dave Grohl-like expression when playing a riff, or Pablo’s brother Luka on drums and occasional vocal duty.
Pablo also acknowledges the great acts that have gone before them in The Louisiana, like Muse and Coldplay, and he gets the audience going with call and response song sections.
Of course, his English is flawless (I dread to think how a British band would cope trying to speak Dutch in the Netherlands, as we seem to live in a language learning vacuum).
Though there were some blips with the mic volume during the show, which lost us some of the lyricism overall, and some awkwardly restrained British responses to Pablo walking amongst the crowd during the encore, these are small gripes in an otherwise seriously impressive gig.
Main photo: Polly Allen
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