British rockers Wolf Alice made a stop at The Echo as part of their American underplay tour, and it was as packed as you could imagine. I still hadn’t recovered from the moshpit at FYF Fest for Nine Inch Nails, but Wolf Alice is always able to bring it out of me.
Tickets to the Wednesday night show were priced at $15 and sold out within 5 minutes, later appearing on StubHub for seven times that price. Those who made it in were among the few and the lucky, as the four-piece played some tunes from their yet-to-be-released sophomore record Visions of a Life, which comes out September 29 via Dirty Hit/RCA Records.
The band took the stage at 11 PM, and launched right into their latest single “Don’t Delete the Kisses”. Those who thought Wolf Alice was just a grunge band were plenty mistaken, as evidenced by the many sides of their debut record My Love is Cool, and by songs like “Don’t Delete the Kisses”.
Up next was the best friend anthem “Bros”, which saw the crowd singing along cheerily, followed by the heavy “You’re a Germ”. One of the highlights of the show was “Your Loves Whore” — when the song built up to its final breakdown and vocalist Ellie Rowsell shouting into the mic, the crowd lost their minds and started to mosh a bit.
The first unreleased new song to be played was the title track from the new record, “Visions of a Life”. The song reminded me of something Silverchair would have put out — a ’90s grunge band that was also capable of showing a softer side the way Wolf Alice can.
One of the other new songs from the new record, “Formidable Cool”, had a really dope funky guitar and bass riff to it. The band closed their set with “Giant Peach”, and when it came time, a girl who said it was her 21st Wolf Alice show got the rest of the crowd to open up the pit and do a Wall of Death, which was dope to witness.
Wolf Alice bassist Theo Ellis told the crowd Los Angeles is their second home, that Visions of a Life was recorded here, and that they’ve spent more time here than in their London home as of late. They seemed really enthused by the crowd turning up so hard, at 11 PM on a weeknight.
For the encore, Rowsell flashed more of her brilliant skills as the frontwoman of the band during “Moaning Lisa Smile”. The menacing look that accompanied her vocals were a perfect way to punctuate a show.
Wolf Alice’s follow-up to their brilliant 2015 debut record was one of my most anticipated albums of 2017 — and somehow that excitement has risen even more for me personally after seeing a handful of the songs performed live. Wolf Alice is out to conquer the world, and they’ve got the tunes and the performance skills to do it. Watch out rock n roll.
Photos courtesy of Carl Pocket co Spaceland Presents
WATCH WOLF ALICE’S NEW VIDEO FOR “YUK FOO” BELOW:
