WOLF ALICE: GLASGOW, UK
Wolfe Alice
at OVO Hydro in Glasgow, UK
words by Josh Parsonage
Wolf Alice have grown into their power, gracefully preserving the magic that won them a cult following a decade ago; their OVO Hydro show carried the same cadence and intimacy that coloured their earlier trips to Scotland at King Tut’s and the Barrowlands.
The oozing maturity of their newest record, The Clearing, feels made for the arena; tracks like ‘Bloom Baby Bloom’ ricochet off the far-flung walls and cast a shimmering atmosphere. These unforgettable moments poise the room for gentler cuts such as 2021’s ‘Safe From Heartbreak (If You Never Fall in Love)’, in which the London quartet hit a profound, aching beauty.
Before all of this, the set began with the teeteringly soft ‘Thorns’. As the rest of the band entered in traditional fashion, Ellie Rowsell emerged from a curtain of sparkling silver streamers, instantly making the Hydro stage feel smaller, closer. As the room appeared to fold inward around her, she delivered the first break of her subtly shaken vocals along the edge of the gentle piano keys: “Did it help to take the thorn out / Telling the whole world you’d been hurt?”, and as Glasgow watched in awe, the delicate nature of ‘Thorns’, trembling on its brink, set up a smooth cartwheel into ‘Bloom Baby Bloom’.
The band have come a long way from 2015’s youthful indie debut My Love Is Cool, passing through the edgy Vision of a Life and the poetic sweep of Blue Weekend along the way. Wolf Alice have crafted a record that isn’t nostalgic so much as present. It confronts the end of youth and the quiet arrival of maturity in a way that feels deeply personal to Rowsell yet remains universally resonant – that next stage is always closer than we think.
Even with such an artful record, the intimacy they achieve in an arena setting is undeniably impressive, though hardly surprising from a band this deft. At times it was easy to feel as though you were in a small venue, yet the scale of the crowd was never lost. The audience moved as one with the band: whether waving arms in unison, bouncing to the flawlessly performed ‘How Can I Make It OK?’, or die-hard fans chanting Theo Ellis’ bassline in ‘You’re A Germ’.
As for highlights, ‘Delicious Things’ (perhaps the band’s finest song) feels more truthful than ever to its tale of fame’s absurdities, especially following the staggering success of The Clearing. Rowsell delivers it with unmistakable genuineness, fully embodying and believing in the brilliant lyrics she writes. The intensity doesn’t stop there. On the angrier, more chaotic tracks – ‘Formidable Cool’ and ‘Play The Greatest Hits’ – Rowsell finds herself on the ground as she screams, “But that’s all he f*cking did when he f*cked you on the floor,” inhabiting the songs’ fury with complete commitment. It makes for a visceral performance; one the audience rapturously feeds off.
The same embodiment carries into their more tender material, from ‘The Sofa’ to what remains the most magical moment of any Wolf Alice gig, even into The Clearing era: ‘Don’t Delete The Kisses’. In a way that makes the room feel as though it might be spinning, the band deliver their most teenage track, a very real depiction of a surreal feeling, with elegant precision. It’s a reminder that, for all their growth, Wolf Alice still hold the power to make thousands of people feel something utterly intimate.
Josh Parsonage
★★★★★