Patrick Wolf is Generation Y & Z’s David Bowie. If you’ve seen the guy in magazines, you’d have no problem believing he was Nylon Magazine’s first record label signee. If you’ve heard the guy, you know the South London crooner has an immaculate vision that could only come across as grandiose.
Wolf walked onto the North Star Bar stage with his head held high and an air of careless confidence to the screams that erupted from the crowd. He settled in front of his microphone with his head down as the ascending siren of “Kriegspiel,” arose tension, and looked up beyond the crowd with his most dramatic glare. Well. Wolf the showman had arrived.
Wolf did his best to make his lyrics all the more outstanding, conducting with his arms outstretched, embracing his microphone delicately, and calling on the audience for a lyrical response in songs like “Battle.” When the 25 year-old Wolf sang “Since I was 12 it's been me versus the world, I got so sick of being told my identity was in minority,” and calling for a rebellion against ignorance and conservatives, he played the part of his red general’s coat, and just as much, played the part of his tight khaki short-shorts. Wolf revels in the idea of being the rebel giving voice to the underrepresented. It doesn’t feel entirely coincidental that the pre-chorus of “Battle,” echoes the guitar in the verse of Rage Against the Machine’s “Snakecharmer.”
Nearly every song called for an epic musical scope. Enlisting the usual rock band suspects and the haute rock flair of violin, cello and electronic beats, Wolf was often aggressively punk or putting his delicate classical and pop influence on display. The energy level may have consistently gone toward the high end, but the sizeable crowd of teenage Nylon magazine fashion trendsters ate it up, jumping up and down multiple songs at a time.
Patrick Wolf and company’s display of skill was a refreshing breath among the Nylon Magazine Summer Music Tour bands, who, until that point were warming up the stage with not much more than average talent and genuine enthusiasm. On the other hand, you’d probably have to beg Wolf to stop taking himself seriously and confusing style with substance. He’s not Owen Pallett or Ra Ra Riot. He’s on to better things.
