Wolf Alice prove why they’re on top with a euphoric show at Leeds’ First Direct Arena
The band played their biggest headline tour yet for new album ‘The Clearing’.
Photo: Kamala Adams
London’s finest rock band, Wolf Alice, are the perfect example of a career in music done right. Starting in 2010 as an acoustic duo playing in pubs, Joff Oddie and Ellie Rowsell later welcomed in bassist Theo Ellis and drummer Joel Amey, with two departures (one being Ellie’s best friend, Sadie, the other James DC, a friend of Joff’s who broke his hand and could no longer play the drums). The band would go on to climb the indie music world at the same time as the likes of Swim Deep and Peace, with the latter taking the band on tour.
I first discovered the band when they were making waves back in 2015, and Moaning Lisa Smile came on the Kerrang! TV channel. At first, I didn’t really get it. I loved the music video, but the music that went along with it wasn’t my cup of tea. With most things, if you give it time, it’ll grow on you like a mole you didn’t know you had. Not so long later, I was aboard the Wolf Alice train and subsequently missed every stop and opportunity to see them live. The year before I had first heard of them, they’d played at a venue a ten-minute walk from my house, and then the years that followed I was either too young, too scared, or too far away from any dates to ever see them live.
Naturally, with the new lust for life I’ve found at the tender age of 26, I took the three-hour coach from Milton Keynes to Leeds (delayed by an hour, with a stop in Chesterfield to tell us they need to “wait for a new driver”) and found myself ready to see a band I have loved for years.
It’s not every gig where you’ll know everyone playing on the line-up, but this time around, I did. Bria Salmena had the task of warming the crowd up and, when compared to The O2 they had just played, it seemed less daunting. In March, Bria dropped her debut album, Big Dog, her first full-length since stepping onto the scene in 2021. Despite it being in an arena, her performance felt intimate still (perhaps down to the fact half of the audience were yet to arrive, and the weather was most likely to blame) and my best friend donned her a “female Thom Yorke”.
Sunflower Bean took to the stage next, delivering powerful performances from their latest album, Mortal Primetime and mainly focusing on that, as well as their 2024 EP, Shake, and their 2015 debut EP, Show Me Your Seven Secrets, playing opening track Somebody Call a Doctor. Before playing new album track I Knew Love, frontwoman Julia Cumming said, “This one’s dedicated to my good friend Ellie,” whom the whole band have known for years.
The lights dimmed, and the crowd grew, murmuring in anticipation, wondering whether they’d bring back any songs (spoiler: they wouldn’t, they stuck to the same setlist throughout their UK tour). Despite being half the size of The O2, the arena still looked packed to the brim, with girls adorned with glitter, stars and leather jackets. That’s the thing about music, it has the ability to bring people who don’t know each other together without even realising. The audience was littered with people dressed in the band’s new merch, with t-shirts up to £45 a pop (I was the fool who fell into the ‘Just Two Girls’ t-shirt trap and left with £40 less in my pockets).
First came Theo, Joff, Joel and Ryan (formerly of Superfood, but they’ve since disbanded and he’s now a touring member of the band), before, through the silver fringe curtain shaped like a star, appeared a dark-haired Ellie in a purple leotard with a white horse planted on the front.
Wasting no time, the band fittingly dug into Thorns, the opener track for the new album, too. With an undeniably fierce attitude and vocals that sounded like hearing the studio album for the first time, the band ripped and roared through album tracks Bloom Baby Bloom and White Horses, with the latter seeing drummer Joel take on dual vocal duties.
The bass was so loud it reverberated in our throats to an almost unbearable degree, but the more the night progressed, the less it hurt.
When Bros came around, upon its opening chord, it hadn’t even hit me what song was playing. By the second verse, I was in tears. If you needed reminding that friendships are far more important than any romantic relationship ever could be, look no further than Bros. And, if it’s a particular track you and your best friend have listened to for the past ten years, and you just so happen to be there, witnessing it live with your best friend, I’d be shocked if you didn’t glance over at them and feel your eyes welling up, too.
During Safe From Heartbreak (If You Never Fall In Love), Joel, Ryan and Theo left their posts to truly strip it back, akin to the original, with the three of them providing harmonies, and getting the crowd involved to shout the last “You fucked with my feelings”.
That night, we were all one together. Except, of course, for the two lads behind us who decided they would fight during a Wolf Alice set, seemingly because one of them wanted to start a mosh pit during the punkier Yuk Foo.
The band left the stage after an energetic and memorable rendition of 2021’s smash hit Smile, while the crowd waited, knowing what was in store. Are encores becoming a bit redundant if we already know what’s coming? Nobody chanted “one more song”; it’s as if we were all too wise now to fall for these tricks — the band didn’t even say goodbye.
Naturally, the band strode back on stage, smiles on faces, and began the tender The Last Man on Earth, before I emotionally prepared myself to stream buckets at Don’t Delete The Kisses, a song I have exhausted to its death, couldn’t listen to for years, and finally jumped back in last year. Thanks in part, I imagine, to the breakdown of a five-year relationship. Something happened that threw me off: I didn’t shed a single tear, I didn’t feel remotely sad. I felt relieved, even. Relieved that I no longer thought of one particular person when I heard that song, and it’s just a beautiful song to me now.
Wolf Alice are a band that cannot be stopped or constrained. They’re travelling at the speed of light, and it can only go up from here. They found their sound years ago, honed it, and now they’re going for gold, with no intention of slowing down. If this arena tour proves anything, it’s that these four — or five, including Ryan — don’t just deserve their flowers, they deserve the whole field.
Setlist:
Thorns
Bloom Baby Bloom
White Horses
Formidable Cool
Just Two Girls
Leaning Against the Wall
How Can I Make It OK?
The Sofa
Bros
You’re a Germ
Safe From Heartbreak (If You Never Fall in Love)
Safe in the World
Delicious Things
Bread Butter Tea Sugar
Yuk Foo
Play the Greatest Hits
Silk
Play It Out
Giant Peach
Smile
Encore:
The Last Man on Earth
Don’t Delete the Kisses
