Gig review: Wolf Alice impress at Olympia in Dublin
Wolf Alice played the Olympia in Dublin.
★★★★☆
Wolf Alice’s return to Ireland has been a long time in the planning. But now, after several Pandemic-enforced cancellations, they are scheduled to play three times in a week, with two dates at the Olympia followed by Electric Picnic on Saturday.
Judging by their lean yet emotive performance on their first night at the Olympia, Stradbally has lots to look forward to. Opening with mannered headbanger Smile, the band were in effervescent form. Waves of melody were combined with sinewy guitars, the quartet’s mellifluent alternative pop locating a sweet spot between the indie disco and the Millennial dinner party.
The group’s lodestar was frontwoman Ellie Rowsell. She brought a lightly worn charisma to mid-tempo, Fleetwood Mac-esque singles Lipstick on the Glass and How Can I Make It Okay? But it was during doomy ballads The Last Man on Earth and closing number Don’t Delete The Kisses that she truly came into her own, her soaring voice glittering with shrapnel.
She didn’t say much between songs – aside from giving a shout-out to her many Irish cousins in attendance. Flanking Rowsell, meanwhile, were the chalk and cheese pairing of guitarist Joff Oddie, who kept his head down, and bassist Theo Ellis, who, with his spiked hair and swagger looked like an exile from the mid-2000s heyday of landfill indie.
The band are named after a short story by Company of Wolves author Angela Carter. And their earlier material indeed has a dark fairytale quality. But 2021’s Blue Weekend album marked a new beginning. Its songs arrived with a pop sheen that suggested a desire to break through to a larger audience.
And, at the Olympia, it was newer tracks such as Delicious Things and Feeling Myself that made an impact (just four cuts from their Mercury-winning Visions Of A Life featured).
Wolf Alice also gave a new meaning to the phrase “the kids are alright” when two children (presumably relatives of the group) came on stage wearing those giant trendy ear-defender headphones.
They rocked alongside Rowsell and Ellis. For a moment, audience, kids and band alike were united in childlike glee.
