By Jessica Rose Devine
As the lights went down in Manchester’s o2 Apollo and the energy-fueled crowd began to scream and prepared themselves for a night of heavy riffs, emotional lyrics and complete sweatiness, Wolf Alice take the stage and kick off with ‘Heavenward’, the opening track of their new album Visions of a Life.
With her slicked back mullet and iconic slip dress, front-woman Ellie Rowsell completely fitted in with the old, cinematic venue through her almost haunting but angelic vocals, leaving the audience in complete awe, wishing they could be as a cool as her.
As the band go straight into VOAL’s lead single ‘Yuk Foo’, which sees a raging two minutes of heavy, fast pace guitar riffs and Rowsell screaming the lyrics: “You bore me, you bore me to death,” the audience truly start to come alive and the moshing and sweat dripping begins.
Continuing with old favourites and keeping up with the heavy sounds during ‘You’re a Germ’ the crowd continue to love every moment, including one guy on another’s shoulders, swinging his top which an amused Ellie described as a “rodeo show”. Then inevitably slowing things down with ‘Your Love’s Whore’ which sees Ellie singing into her second microphone, creating a powerful echoing sound and reaching the high ceilings of the Apollo, which no doubt left goosebumps throughout the entire venue.
Taking us back to their trademark grunge-folk sound with ‘St. Purple & Green’, accompanied by a forest backdrop and hypnotic purple and green lighting, Wolf Alice did not fall short at any point.
During ‘Don’t Delete the Kisses’ – which heart-grabbing lyrics turned out to be the crowd favourite – a guitarless Ellie takes her mic to the edge of the stage, sits down and sings the dreamy lyrics to the crowd, almost as if she is singing them to each and every person.
Continuing with another raged fueled track, ‘Formidable Cool’, they then played the classics such as ‘Lisbon’, ‘Moaning Lisa Smile’ and ‘Bros’, and of course without these three tracks, would it even be a complete Wolf Alice setlist?
Starting their encore with My Love Is Cool’s ‘Blush’, the lights reflected off a disco ball which gave us a magical, prom-like feel before unsurprisingly finishing their set with ‘Giant Peach’ where the crowd went wild for the final time resulting in people getting knocked over like dominos (including myself), but it was all worth it.
Wolf Alice, surprisingly made us appreciate the freezing temperatures of Manchester as this was the sweatiest gig I’ve ever attended; however, they are a band who will never disappoint and no doubt have a bigger and very exciting future.
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