Wolf Alice showcase their London riffs and exceptional range at The Truman
Wolf Alice. // Photo by Tyler Schneider
Touring for their third album, Blue Weekend, London-based rock quartet Wolf Alice played for a diverse crowd at The Truman on October 8, strumming out 19 songs as they showcased the melodic, emotive, alternative sound that won them the 2022 Brit Award for Group of the Year, among other accolades.
It wouldn’t be fair to not mention their opener, Toronto-native singer-songwriter and instrumentalist Luna Li, and her band. They set the tone for the show in their final pairing on the ticket with Wolf Alice by playing songs from her debut album, Duality, released last March. Li and her band have some serious range. They began with several songs that were all incredibly catchy, dreamy, bedroom-pop meets funk-rock style jams—all of them welcome to the novice ear.
About halfway through their nine song set, Li pulled out a violin and the group began jamming some nifty instrumentals that shined just as bright, with my favorite being “cloud castle” a thriving, luscious soundscape that includes a funky bass riff and beautiful strings and piano.
Wolf Alice. // photo by Tyler Schneider
When Wolf Alice—comprised of lead singer Ellie Rowsell, guitarist Joff Oddie, bassist Theo Ellis, and drummer Joel Amey—hit the stage, fans were treated with their most popular track from Blue Weekend, “Smile.” The song totters between heavily distorted riffs to quick, snarky lyrical delivery from Rowsell, who has grown tremendously as a lyricist throughout the band’s 12-year run.
They followed that up with “You’re A Germ” from the group’s 2015 debut album release, My Love Is Cool, before launching into the groovy intro and angsty lyricism of “Formidable Cool,” from their 2017 album, Visions of a Life.
Rowsell and company continued with more from Blue Weekend, with “Delicious Things,” “Lipstick on the Glass,” before turning back to Visions of a Life’s “Planet Hunter,” and “Space & Time.”
The show picked up with “Bros,” one of Wolf Alice’s most beloved songs from their debut record. An ode to Rowsell’s childhood best friend, “Bros” is an emotional, nostalgia-twinged, goosebump-inducing hit that one has to hear live to truly feel in its entirety. The crowd was having it, and so was I. I’m sure a few tears rolled down more than a few cheeks.
Back to Blue Weekend. “Safe From Heartbreak (If You Never Fall in Love),” “How Can I Make It OK?”, and “Play the Greatest Hits” all followed in succession as Rowsell showcased her most recent songwriting chops backed by softer, more melodic backing than some of Wolf Alice’s heavier works.
Wolf Alice. // Photo by Tyler Schneider
“Silk” from their debut album broke up those newer works before the band again returned to Blue Weekend for “Feeling Myself” and “No Hard Feelings.” “Visions Of A Life,” the thumping titular track that closed their second album, followed, and was a definite highlight of the show as the rest of the band showcased their chops by weaving in and out of Rowsell’s beautifully eerie vocal performance.
“Moaning Lisa Smile,” a 2016 Grammy nominee from their debut album, gave the quartet another turn at playing some of their earlier, rockin’ grunge sound. The brief guitar solo by Oddie brought a ton of energy, as did Ellis’ howls on backup vox.
This fed into the choppy, catchy riffs of another 2015 song, “Giant Peach,”—a 90’s-esque guitar-fueled banger and an example of the group having some serious fun with it.
The two-part encore included one more new track—“The Last Man on Earth,” but was blown out of the water in terms of crowd energy when they hit the opening bars of “Don’t Delete the Kisses”—Wolf Alice’s most popular song and a whispered anthem of feels that I have yet to get out of my head and probably never fully will.
