In 2012, American power rocker Andrew W.K. was an international headliner at Groovin The Moo.
Despite it being almost 12 years since he released his globally-celebrated debut party rock record I Get Wet – which featured anthems like ‘Party Hard’ and ‘Party til You Puke’ –Andrew W.K. was still a widely acclaimed touring musician so, ostensibly, the billing made sense.
Unfortunately, punters at the rural music festival didn’t enjoy the hard rocking Californian’s piano-driven rock opera, instead pelting him with bottles and shoes from Bendigo to Townsville.
Andrew W.K. – or Andrew Fetterly Wilkes-Krier as he is known off stage – didn’t let that stop his performance though. “It’s a pretty straight-forward showbiz tradition that the show must go on,” he says.
“There have been tons of shows like that and, to be honest, looking back on those sorts of shows, it’s amazing to me that it hasn’t happened more often.”
For the uninitiated, trying to imagine what would be so polarizing about a 6ft 2” man with long black hair playing thundering rock’n’roll on piano, one could speculate that it’s the total lack of pretension and raw emotion that Wilkes-Krier plays with that audiences found so loathsome. It is as though, before each set, he rips out his heart and hands it to the audience to mind while he shreds.
There is an unspoken contract that Wilkes-Krier enters with every single punter at each of his shows. “The goal is to create a feeling in that room that reaches deep inside all of us and stays there, so once you have left the room and returned to your life outside the venue that ‘party power’ will ring not just in your ears, but in your soul as well.”
When Wilkes-Krier first toured Australia in 2001, a small yet passionate crowd caught his show at Max Watt’s (then called The Hi-Fi Bar). Not to let the smallish turnout detract from the party, he invited the entire audience onstage and encouraged a young man to stage dive – miraculously the handful of people remaining on the floor boosted the diver, causing the essentially stateless crowd surfer to land on their feet.
“I have always believed that there seems to be a party guardian angel in so many of these situations that look out for the hard-partyers of the world. At all my shows, those that choose to give themselves wholeheartedly over to the party are protected by a presence that helps ensure safety and maintain kindness so it can be a very joyful yet violent experience,” Wilkes-Krier says.
This unbridled physical expression he is describing has always been a cornerstone of Andrew W.K.’s music, with the front cover of his debut record featuring Wilkes-Krier with a heavily broken and bloodied nose.
This passion found in his music and live performance still spills over, even when he is simply discussing it. “When I let myself go to the music I am liberated from that need to control my physical self. Instead, I’m lost to my own spirit that is being nourished by the benevolent spirit of partying.”
The juxtaposition of Wilkes-Krier preaching at the altar of ‘party’ and the baffled tone in which he sought to reconcile his reception last time he was in Australia is profound. Similarly, as Wilkes-Krier describes the six-piece band he is bringing for this tour there is fortitude to his tone, as though he is tacitly committing that this tour will deliver.
“Lately, we’ve been touring more shows than we ever have before. Rather than tire us, the increased performances have led to the band having more moments where we collectively achieve a transcendental state – where we are one with the music and ourselves. It’s a type of fulfilment that I’ve never really experienced before in life,” Wilkes-Krier says.
For Wilkes-Krier, this current incarnation of Andrew W.K. is the best yet. “I can now say that when I see a photo of the band up on stage, that this looks the way I dreamed and hoped it would look back in 1998 when I established it.”
