Live Review: Wolf Alice

Melbourne punk band CLAMM step up to fill the support act slot at the last minute tonight after illness strikes the previously booked band. Their loud vocals, thrashing guitars and heavy-hitting drums send thumping torrents throughout the theatre. They power through a short set of relentless new wave punk bangers with an intense ferocity to shake up the crowd as they tackle topical issues including mental health, materialism, anti-violence and politics.

The Forum is completely sold out for Wolf Alice. It’s great to see it this full after such a long time with restrictions in place. The British dream-pop band launch right into it with Smile, taken from their latest album, Blue Weekend. The heavy and hypnotic track is the perfect opener for us to channel our inner punk.

It’s clear they’ve put a lot of work into their setlist with a great mix of new and old favourites. They seamlessly shift gears across their diverse soundscape ranging from full-throttle guitars with vocalist Ellie Rowsell’s grungy growling vocals to the tender vulnerability of her sweet, angelic soprano. On paper, this could seem quite disjointed, but they’ve mastered the tempo of their performance to ensure it flows perfectly to create a cinematic quality that takes us on an emotional rollercoaster. 

“This is quite an emotional experience coming from the other side of the world and now all of you watching us live on this side of the world,” says bassist Theo Ellis, who takes the lead on revving up the audience. We don’t hear much crowd interaction from them but this actually works to their advantage because it ensures not to distract from the pace of the set. 

Pic by Andrew Briscoe

How Can I Make It Ok? marks the halfway point and it builds the tempo beautifully with a romantic chorus backed by loud drums, airy synths and stunning guitar riffs. They continue to surprise us by quickly switching the mood into overdrive as they go mental for a riotous punk thrash of Play The Greatest Hits. The audience enjoys a good mosh in the floor section and throw their bodies around. 

The last part of the set includes some quintessential Wolf Alice sing-along tracks including Bros, Silk and Giant Peach which draws Rowsell out into the front of the mosh pit to sing the final chorus with the crowd. Ellis continues to entertain the audience stage right as he holds his bass guitar above his head to excite them.

After more than an hour-long-set, Wolf Alice give us a two-song-encore featuring Last Man On Earth and Don’t Delete The Kisses. We hold our phone torches up to shine our light on them and Rowsell accepts a rose from an audience member and holds it tight as she clutches the microphone stand to bare one last vulnerable heartbreak anthem with pure vulnerability.

Pic by Andrew Briscoe