Between Leather And Tinsel: Wolf Alice Open Their UK Tour In Manchester

Don’t let the tinselled stage and disco ball fool you, a Wolf Alice show will have you moshing and headbanging in no time. 

The Glam-rock band kicked off their UK leg of ‘The Clearing’ tour at Manchester's AO Arena on Friday night. 

Opening the night was Bria Salmena with airy vocals and a calmer tone, showing the more introspective side of Wolf Alice. Her stage presence was evident and added a bit of humour to her set by covering the cheekily lyriced ‘F*ck The Pain Away’ by Peaches. Next up were Sunflower Bean, who were just full energy and oozed the classic rock that Wolf Alice weaves into their own music. Sunflower Bean had everyone up and dancing before Wolf Alice had even hit the stage. The support were an incredible pick, showcasing the different styles of the band's own music and had the energy up from the start. 

Wolf Alice came straight out of the gates with three songs from their latest album, ‘The Clearing’. With the audience as loud as ever, it just goes to show how consistent the band have been in the quality of their work even while traversing new sounds. They ended their new music spree with ‘White Horses’, driven by the deeper sonorous vocals of Joel Amey. His vocals blend particularly well with the strumming, metallic acoustics of the guitar and the contrast of Ellie Rowsell’s sharper, cutting vocals.

Wolf Alice sit in this beautiful place of contrasts and did well displaying this not only in their set design of tinsel and leather but in the wider configuration of the set list. The band expertly navigated the crowd’s energy, taking the audience on a journey, turning down the tempo when the crowd's voice started getting a bit scratchy and out of breath - I’m sure also a relief to Ellie herself too. 

With that said, even in the slower songs, there was no denying that Ellie had complete mastery over her instrument. Throughout the night, she maintained her energy and gave her all to each song, leaving the crowd with no choice but to join in on the fun. During ‘Safe From Heartbreak’, she had the whole audience screaming back, “You f*cked with my feelings”. The band pulled back, like the studio track, to just them and the sold-out crowd of 23,000 people in the final moments of the song, everyone's voices filling the arena, becoming almost intimate for a second

The band really fostered this feeling of the audience being in on the music throughout the night. Before singing ‘The Sofa’, Ellie discussed how she wrote this song about the pressures of having to look and act a certain way and being done with it - if “[she] wants to wear sparkly knickers [she] will!” Towards the end, she looked emotional after letting the crowd in on the meaning. Later, she equally expressed how she was tearing up seeing everyone’s lights go up for ‘Play It Out’.

This wasn’t just an emotional night for Ellie, though; it was evident how much these songs meant to everyone in the crowd, with the sheer volume at which the audience were singing and the release of having to sound perfect and just wanting to let out all the emotions in that moment. It was beautiful to see so many women turn to one another during ‘Just Two Girls’, expressing their platonic love, where most songs nowadays focus on the romantic. While they performed to thousands of people, the band and audience were all linked through their emotional attachment to these songs.

While Wolf Alice has incredibly introspective and beautiful lyrics, they also love a good outburst. They approach catharsis through many musical avenues, and one of them is their heavier rock side. After disappearing behind the wall of tinsel, sirens blare, and red and blue lights scatter about the stage as Ellie enters with a megaphone. Mosh Pits open up as she shouts the lyrics of ‘Yuk Foo’ into the prop.

Wolf Alice are not only adept at playing their instruments but their audience. This was such a personal moment to thousands of people, all gathered to cry, headbang or a mix of both. In the final moment of the concert ending with ‘Don’t Delete The Kisses’, Ellie turns the mic to the crowd to end the concert themselves singing “I see the signs of a lifetime, you till I die”. In this last moment, the audience is reminded just how interlinked they are with the band and their music. 


Ella Wilson-Coates

Images: Hannah Pemberton

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