Seminal British band Wolf Alice kick off their headline tour in celebration of their fourth studio album
Wolf Alice kicked off their latest tour, with a sold-out show at Manchester’s AO Arena(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
Moments before Wolf Alice take to the stage, a small camera pokes out of a shimmering silver tinsel backdrop at the back of the venue.
It’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment but makes sense later in the show when both frontwoman Ellie Rowsell and bassist Theo Ellis, close to tears, take a second to compose themselves. They’re just letting the last decade sink in.
Since their 2015 debut album ‘My Love Is Cool,’ the London four-piece have grown into one of Britain’s most cherished and accomplished bands. The real graft was taking place well before then though – they toured, built a loyal fanbase, and let their sound naturally evolve.
Wolf Alice kicked off their latest tour, with a sold-out show at Manchester’s AO Arena(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
A game of patience a persistence has paid dividends and enabled them to continually experiment, grow and take risks. For context, earlier this year they received their fourth consecutive Mercury Prize nomination, something that no-one else has ever achieved. As they say – trust the process.
If we can talk about eras, this is perhaps their most confident. A summer of exquisite festival performances including Glastonbury and Primavera Sound, capped off by the arrival of a a striking fourth album. ‘The Clearing’ is self-assured, nostalgic, but not indulgent, and an ode to finding clarity.
It’s not as gritty as previous records, as rough edges are sanded down to create a more polished product, but it’s no bad thing when you have the range and back catalogue as strong as theirs. And as their first headline UK arena tour opens at Manchester’s AO, they deliver a performance which effortlessly saunters and prowls between all eras of Wolf Alice.
Wolf Alice kicked off their latest tour, with a sold-out show at Manchester’s AO Arena(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
There’s an almost regal air as they assume their positions on the stage for album opener ‘Thorns’, a piano-heavy number with shades of ‘The Last Man On Earth’, where Ellie questions herself for “making a song and dance” about airing her dirty laundry through the medium of songwriting.
Genre-defying ‘Bloom Baby Bloom’ with its jangly keys, rousing pop chorus and squealing guitars kicks things into gear, ensuring there’s not too much introspection early doors.
Inspired by themes of identity and family, drummer Joel Amey takes the lead on vocals for the first time in a while on the new record’s ‘White Horses’, while ‘Just Two Girls’ and its 1970s soft rock-inspired sounds captures the beauty of friendship.
Wolf Alice kicked off their latest tour, with a sold-out show at Manchester’s AO Arena(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
Breathy and folky, ‘Leaning Against The Wall’ feels delicate and romantic – the perfect companion to from 2021 ‘How Can I Make It Ok?’, the latter delivered with Rowsell’s spine-tingling high notes and delicious rasp.
An outing for their latest album’s greatest ballad, ‘The Sofa’, is appreciated – both for its confronting honesty and cinematic sound, but also permission to take to our settees when life’s biggest questions require a lie down.
A gear change as we’re taken back a decade, ‘Bros’ bouncing off the walls – the kind of song where you want to clutch you best friend, jump as high as the rafters, and let it all out – the audience figuratively joining hands for a collective moment of unbridled joy and abandon.
Wolf Alice kicked off their latest tour, with a sold-out show at Manchester’s AO Arena(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
Little time to settle in, ‘You’re a Germ’, brings that grimy edge to proceedings, Ellie’s haunting laughter echoing around the arena as she prowls about the stage before assembling Joff, Theo and Joel for a tender but bitter rendition of ‘Safe From Heartbreak (If You Never Fall In Love).
A choir master in a glam cut leotard and knee high leather boots, she gets the audience on board with ease for the harmony of a snarling “You fucked with my feelings” – a group catharsis in action – before changing directions again.
Stopping off via the Fleetwood Mac-esque ‘Bread Butter Tea Sugar’, we’re then delivered an electrifying ‘Yuk Foo’, screamed through a megaphone – of course. There’s little time to catch your breath before ‘Play The Greatest Hits’, ‘Silk’ and ‘Giant Peach’.
Wolf Alice kicked off their latest tour, with a sold-out show at Manchester’s AO Arena(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
The camera phones lights coming out for this year’s ‘Play It Out’, which grapples with the biological clock, seems to genuinely move Rowsell, before she regains composure and the distorted riffs and hypnotic sounds of ‘Smile’ bring us to the encore.
After a dizzying, charged and cathartic journey through their last decade, it feels only right that ‘Don’t Delete The Kisses’ swirls around the arena to bring the night to a close. A song the embodies all of Wolf Alice – the light and the shade – it feels like a swansong, but it’s clear they’re only just getting started.