Wolf Alice knock it out of the park at their homecoming show
The North London band return to their home to play to a huge crowd at Finsbury Park.
Photo: Alice Backham
In 2014, when aimlessly flicking through music channels on the TV in my living room, a dance competition on Kerrang!’s channel stopped me in my tracks. This wasn’t a real competition, no, but rather Wolf Alice’s single Moaning Lisa Smile, with frontwoman Ellie Rowsell awkwardly on stage, being helped by three drag queens. At first, the screaming put me off — it was a big jump from the music I was used to listening to at the time, but I would return to the same channel, always hoping to see it. I’d like to think I remembered my roots and the music I grew up with.
From then on, and with the release of more music, Ellie and her friends became my inspiration. I thought they were the coolest — I still do. I bought glittery tops with my best friend to wear when we went to university. We never got around to wearing them, but inspiration took different shapes; I bought my first acoustic guitar, then an electric one, then another. Bands like Black Honey joined Wolf Alice in being major inspirations as women wielding guitars started popping up more and more.
I only saw Wolf Alice for the first time last December, at their arena show in Leeds. Perhaps, if I had gone to an earlier show, I would’ve had something to compare it to, but I saw the photos of their much more intimate shows in the pages of the NME and DIY, too afraid and too young to get on the train to London back then. Their show in Leeds was one of the best shows I’ve ever been to. When the opening notes of Bros began, I looked at my best friend after all the years we had spent listening to it together at college, and that turned on some serious waterworks. I don’t think I’ll ever cry like that again.
Speaking to Alice Costelloe earlier this year, it turns out she also cried at one of their shows last year, too — her best friend, Ryan, joined Wolf Alice a few years ago after leaving Superfood behind, and she’s known the band for a long time. It seems they just have that effect on people.
After a jam-packed line-up, including the likes of Florence Road, Keo, Rachel Chinouriri, Lykke Li and The Last Dinner Party, the crowd grew larger and larger, littered with people adorned with Wolf Alice’s merch; a sea of red t-shirts with Just Two Girls on the front blended with the newer merch on sale, like a cream coloured long-sleeve and a black t-shirt made especially for the show.
As the band casually strode onto the stage as if they were walking out into their back garden, the crowd erupted into a frenzied applause, whoops and cheers. This was about to be huge — we all knew that. The crowd were ready to be taken away on the Wolf Alice train, and I was more than ready.
Kicking things off with Bloom Baby Bloom, one of the singles from their 2025 album, The Clearing, Ellie and co. proved, once more, that they’re the cream of the crop. There’s a reason they toured with Harry Styles a few years ago and Hayley Williams was left in awe at Ellie’s voice a mere few weeks ago.
This is a band that knows exactly who they are and are unapologetically themselves, drifting in between louder and softer moments; the gentle breeze of new b-side Gospel Oak balanced against the angry, protest-like Yuk Foo, where Ellie grabbed a megaphone and strode around the barricade, screaming into one lucky fan’s phone.
Bros was — understandably so — one of the highlights and even better live when you aren’t uncontrollably sobbing. Videos from years and years ago of the four friends played while they performed, which almost made me cry — almost. Coming right after recent album track Leaning Against The Wall, these songs blended perfectly together and, as Ellie had posted a few days before that she was going for a walk and ‘sorting the setlist for Finsbury’, she had done an excellent job.
Delightful, unforgettable moments came when Ellie perched upon a podium at the back of the stage, turning the energy down a notch to perform White Leather from the deluxe version of their debut album, My Love Is Cool. I always wanted to experience it live — it’s one of my favourites, after all — but, when those opening notes played out, I had no idea how incredible it would sound live, with the whole audience at a standstill.
Photo: Alice Backham
The lead single from The Clearing, The Sofa, had everyone up and screaming along. Clearly a fan favourite, and one that sounds just as good live as it does recorded.
My most-streamed song of all time, Don’t Delete The Kisses, was the presumed end, with Ellie belting the lyrics out as if her lover stood before her, hopefully aware that she has written one of the greatest love songs of all time. The five walked off stage, waving to the crowd, who were all aware there would be more, but we played along for the sake of the encore tradition.
When they came back out, our deputy editor, Chloe, said, “I wish they’d play Moaning Lisa Smile.” With Ellie noticeably holding the same white guitar she had for the heavier tracks, Yuk Foo and Play the Greatest Hits, I was sure we were about to witness it live for the first time. And, there it was, twenty or so minutes down memory lane, where they even played part of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit and ended on first album track Giant Peach, before playing Sweet Caroline on the stereos to get the crowd pumped for the England versus Mexico game, and leaving for good this time.
Wolf Alice prove, yet again, that they are one of the most exciting acts to come out of North London and England as a whole in the past twenty years. There are not many other bands I can think of that do tender, soft moments as well as the heavier, angrier tracks, but Wolf Alice have this balanced down to an art. Each album possesses this magnetic feel; every song tells a story like Ellie Rowsell was born with a pen in hand, and I have no doubt that in a good twenty or so years we’ll still be seeing Wolf Alice on top.
Setlist:
Bloom Baby Bloom
White Horses
Formidable Cool
Lisbon
Just Two Girls
Leaning Against the Wall
Bros
Gospel Oak
White Leather
How Can I Make It OK?
The Sofa
Bread Butter Tea Sugar
Yuk Foo
Play the Greatest Hits
Smile
Lipstick on the Glass
Visions of a Life
The Last Man on Earth
Don’t Delete the Kisses
Encore:
Moaning Lisa Smile
Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana cover) (Partial; first verse and chorus)
Giant Peach
