Late on a chaotic afternoon in Adelaide, when the open-air festival set of Wolfmother was suddenly derailed by unrelenting thunderstorms, the band made a bold pivot that turned what could have been a dampened day into a raucous, unforgettable night. With their scheduled 3:30-4:30 pm slot at the Harvest Rock Festival washed out, the Australian rock-power trio quietly shifted gears and showed up at the nearby Hotel Metro on Grote Street, stepping into the gear of local act Stiff Necks to deliver a surprise set for an intimate crowd by pub-gig standards.
The scene was surreal for the night’s originally scheduled headliner, Stiff Necks, whose drummer Damon Kerr said he and his band “couldn’t believe it” when Wolfmother asked to borrow their equipment and go on stage. “If you’d told my younger self that we’d open for Wolfmother in a local Adelaide pub I’d probably say you’re joking,” Kerr reflected.
Once Wolfmother hit the stage, the crowd surged. They opened with raw vintage riffs, and when the thunderous chords of “Joker and the Thief”—the band’s breakout anthem with over 368 million streams on Spotify—filled the venue, the bar went haywire. Moshers, crowd-surfers and long-time fans alike were united in a moment of spontaneous rock communion.
The sudden shift from festival stage to hotel-pub atmosphere didn’t go unnoticed by the band. Wolfmother later posted on Instagram, calling the impromptu show “just for a laugh” but giving fans something irrepressible.
Organisers had to halt the festival earlier in the day when storms and lightning swept across Adelaide, forcing thousands to seek refuge indoors while acts like Wolfmother and electronic duo Bag Raiders saw their sets cancelled or delayed.
Rather than let weather dampen the spirit, Wolfmother threw it back to raw, communal energy—reminding once again why they’re one of Australia’s greatest rock exports. For the fans who expected a large-scale festival spectacle but got a tight, sweaty pub set instead, it became something rarer: a genuine moment of rock spontaneity.
