Reviewed on Friday July 24
We rock up with time to kill before the support, Bad//Dreems, take the stage, so we follow the numbly belligerent bouncer’s directions to the cordoned off smoking area. We’re sharing the space with several other fresh-faced arrivals… and quite a large number of panting, sweat-drenched revellers sucking down frantic cigarettes and recovering from the epic set that Bad//Dreems have just wrapped. Well, shit.
With no time to waste we whirl inside (“Only girls get ID’d,” a bouncer says as we pass, which seems like confused logic, but then, I’m the guy who got the set times wrong). It occurs to me that Wolf Alice are starting early for a headline OAF act – it’s now 9:30pm – but that’s cool; all the more time to rock out into the night.
Which becomes my caveat. Don’t get me wrong, Wolf Alice give a fucking impressive set, and hard-working frontwoman Ellie Rowsell seems to be having genuine fun. But blink and you’ll miss it – at around 50 minutes, it is conspicuously short. Sure, it’s a Splendour sideshow, but you do anticipate a little bit more than a festival set when you’re catching a debut Australian headlining gig.
Still, these guys hit the ground running. Opening with an EP track, ‘She’, the alt-rock quartet rarely miss a beat, though it may be more accurate to call them grunge. Rowsell has exceptional range and colour to her voice, which is easy to take for granted when listening to their recordings but something quite different when experienced in the flesh. The energy she puts into her performance is damned impressive, more so on the odd occasions where her voice falters slightly (on the splendid ‘Blush’, for instance); Rowsell gave her all.
Nor are her bandmates standing idle. As the audience slowly gets moving (and what gives? It is a weirdly recalcitrant crowd tonight, as though the fans first have to be impressed before they are willing to try and enjoy themselves), bassist Theo Ellis encourages folk to raise their hands and clap along. The result clearly surprises him; the crowd is finally hooked. It is also worth nothing that Ellis is quite likely the lovechild of Coldplay’s Chris Martin and James Marsters from Buffy.
Highlights? The unexpected cover of Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game’ and ‘Moaning Lisa Smile’ both stand tall, but for me, ‘Your Love’s Whore’ is the winner. Wolf Alice are so damned good it’s bewildering – but we only get this fleeting, vibrant taste.
