Geils singer delivers for the Wolf Pack
NORTH TRURO – “Life is nothing but a sweet serenade,” Peter Wolf proclaimed during his Sunday night concert at the Payomet Performing Arts Center, but the former lead singer for the J. Geils Band knows there’s a lot more to it than that. With a rock style that blends in blues, soul and R&B, Wolf is more about begging, screaming and shouting than serenading.
Lean as a splinter, he took the stage in black pants and a black shirt with a silver-beaded jacket that reflected the stage lights. Elbows pinned to his sides, he moved with his body coiled, as if he’s spent a lifetime dancing in tight spaces – even though he’s played on many of the biggest concert stages.
The 17-song show covered Wolf’s career from the Geils Band’s 1970 debut through the most recent of his eight solo CDs, “A Cure for Loneliness, which was released in 2016.
Highlights included covers of bluesman Otis Rush’s “Homework,” the Stonesy vibe of “Some Things You Don’t Want to Know” and the hard-rocking “Hard Drivin’ Man.”
Duke Levine on electric guitar, Kevin Barry on electric guitar and lap steel guitar, and Tom West keyboards provided the perfect amount of lead-in and mid-song solos to dress up the songs, satisfying the Wolf Pack, as the singer’s fans call themselves. Drummer Tom Arey and bass player Marty Ballou guided the band through the mid-tempo rockers of Wolf’s solo songs and the slightly quicker pace of the Geils’ classics.
In addition to being a stellar frontman, Wolf is an entertaining storyteller. He reminisced about following Bob Dylan all over New York City in the early ’60s and recording in the ’80s with Aretha Franklin, who was a “Dynasty” fan and spoke with an English accent a la Joan Collins.
The main set closed with “Love Stinks,” one of the J. Geils Band’s biggest hits and a rousing version of “Looking for a Love.” After a break of just a minute or two, the band returned for “I Need You Tonight,” a song off Wolf’s first solo CD.
Wolf thanked the crowd for “many years of loyal support” and then jive-talked through the rapid-fire verbal mish-mash introduction to “Must of Got Lost,” another Geils classic.
At 72, Wolf may have lost a little of the frenzy in his voice, but not much. As he moved to the very back row of the Payomet tent during “Must of Got Lost,” he also showed that he hasn’t lost much of his energy since the ’70s and ’80s, back when the J. Geils Band was playing steamy summer shows at the Cape Cod Coliseum in South Yarmouth.