Wolf Alice + Matt Maltese: UEA LCR, Norwich [Live]

Saturday night marked a live performance I'd been waiting for since April last year, from a band that have made a huge impact on me over the past 12 months. So I walked into the cavernous LCR with high expectations, but also with full confidence that Wolf Alice wouldn't let me down.

It was a shame that I only caught the last few songs of the support set from Matt Maltese (due to unexpectedly early stage times) - I enjoyed what I saw. He and the rest of the trio were very skilled, present in the moment but relatively mellow, and provided a good base to ease the audience into the evening. Matt's a great pianist and has a very good voice, too - a smooth baritone.

He ended his short set with an engaging performance of 'As The World Caves In' (throwing in a surprise by skilfully beginning it with a snippet from the Succession theme). It's a moving song, and it was a thoughtfully delivered performance, capturing attention and holding it to the last note. Then, Matt said a few brief words of thanks and left the stage swiftly.

There was a real buzz as the stage was reset by a surprisingly large team. You can tell that Wolf Alice have reached the next level of rock stardom by the number of guitars in the racks, and the number of roadies and stage hands helping out. The guitar tech got a big cheer for his quick tune up and test of Ellie's black strat and her pedal board ... Then the activity ceased and was into those last few minutes of waiting, which can seem to stretch out with the anticipation ... until suddenly and finally, it's time.

I always love the experience of that moment a headlining band first appears on stage: glimpsing their faces, full of determined excitement, and then hearing the fans react to their first sight of the performers. On Saturday, Wolf Alice walked on stage seemingly with an air of awareness of all that's been happening to them recently, and those waves they are making and riding; there was a definite infusion of cool confidence, but without cockiness. This was a date towards the end of a long-awaited tour, and the thrill and novelty of finally being able to do this again was clearly still there for the band - they still had lots of energy in reserve

Theo appeared, raising his arms at the crowd, playing the role of hype man to a tee. Joff came on with his usual modest swagger, and Joel got himself seated, clearly buzzing with energy. Ellie slipped on stage quietly, but soon transformed into a bit of a goddess - shredding her guitar in full-on guitar hero style, singing in a focused, passionate way, holding the notes long with touches of vibrato, pushing, staying on track, despite the noise of a thousand fans singing along.

The opening songs of the set were a masterpiece of curation, hitting the audience with a wave of noise, setting the scene and leaving no doubt in our minds that this band meant serious business. First up, 'Smile', played at full blast, straight in with the energy, no need to waste time warming up. Then it was 110% no nonsense, 'You're a Germ' followed by 'Formidable Cool'. That's a set of songs covering a six-year period, sitting together like they were from the same record. Wolf Alice are at the point where they can draw confidently from a solid back catalogue, mixing and matching at will from a strong palette.

Then came three slightly slower numbers - 'Delicious Things' and 'Lipstick on the Glass' from Blue Weekend (2021), and 'Planet Hunter' from Visions of a Life (2017) - before launching into a superb, upbeat rendition of 'Bros'. 

For the rest of the set, the band carried on with this pattern of carefully created energy levels, dipping in and out of their previous releases, creating a really lovely feeling of ebb and flow. Of course, with an audience like this one, there was not much chance of putting a foot wrong. But all the same, a lot of effort is needed to create a properly coherent set; the band had been doing their homework; there was no sense that they were just throwing out the crowd-pleasers. 

Theo announced the next song as a "campfire moment", and out came the phone lights for 'Safe From Heartbreak', which eased into 'How Can I Make It OK?' Atmospheric is not the word - it was a truly joyous few minutes of shared experience.

Then, then - a pretty mad version of 'Play The Greatest Hits' - I'm sure this was performed a lot faster than the album recording, and it was certainly a lot dirtier and much more raw. I was really impressed with the way the band took the opportunity to use the dynamics of the live experience to make the most of songs like this - there's more room in that environment to experiment, using the span of the stage and the buzz of the audience to find something different in a song, and Wolf Alice obviously know and love this aspect of their band life. They also struck me as supremely capable from start to end, handling each moment confidently, but staying totally connected with their audience.

'Feeling Myself' was a stand out song. There was a bit less of the warm, enveloping feeling of the album version (no strings, less reverb); instead, the band made the most of some really deep, throbbing bass notes - and of course Ellie's versatile vocals - to create huge sensuality. Some bands produce great records but fall a bit flat live, unable to perform at the same level without the support of production techniques - with Wolf Alice it's the other way around. The records are great, but they're a band born to play live, and they thrive on the reality of a gig.

A few songs later, an amazing moment as Ellie announced "a volunteer to play guitar", helped a fan onto stage and handed over her guitar. This fan - who turned out to be a 17-year-old called Lauren - then proceeded to absolutely rip through 'Moaning Lisa Smile', including nailing an awesome guitar solo. Lauren was clearly thrilled by this chance, and had everyone's full support. Even for a bit of an old cynic like me, this was a lovely touch of humanity and connection. 

Ellie took a breather after that, perching stage front to sing an intimate version of 'No Hard Feelings'. That could have been a neat way to round out the set, finishing gently but memorably, fading into the night. But instead, the band launched into one of my favourites, 'Giant Peach': this is a song built around some immensely satisfying power-chord based guitar riffs, a thrilling build, and some visceral vocal moments, and even after an hour on stage there was more than enough energy left in the band's batteries to do this one justice. They obviously wanted to go out on a high, and that is absolutely what they did.

Of course, it wasn't really finished there - we all knew there'd be an encore, with a couple of must-play songs not yet heard. I'd been looking forward to  'Last Man On The Earth' all night; I knew that in front of an excited and unleashed crowd, singing along to every word, the band was always going to struggle to bring out all the subtleties of that song, but it held its own, becoming more anthemic in this setting.

Then it was 'Don't Delete the Kisses', again transformed by audience participation into something a bit different - or perhaps it's better to say that something at the core of the song was revealed in this setting - a triumphant, joint celebration of life and love in all its stages. 

And that really was the end to of one of those gigs that I'd be more than happy to relive all over again tomorrow. 





Setlist

Smile

You're a Germ

Formidable Cool 

Delicious Things

Lipstick on the Glass

Planet Hunter

Bros

Safe From Heartbreak (If You Never Fall in Love)

How Can I Make It OK?

Play the Greatest Hits

Feeling Myself

Silk

Visions of a Life

Moaning Lisa Smile

No Hard Feelings

Giant Peach

Encores: The Last Man on Earth, Don't Delete the Kisses

Date of gig: 26 February 2022

Matt Maltese on Spotify:

 

Wolf Alice on Spotify: