Wolf Alice’s The Clearing Tour

Salome Liptak ’28

“Thank you to whoever gave me this cup of white wine—you know exactly what kind of girl I am,” Ellie Rowsell said to the crowd. 

She had a red solo cup raised high above her head like a glam rock Statue of Liberty, whose plaque might read something like: give me your wild, your heartbroken, your people yearning for mystical nature imagery.

Wolf Alice, on tour for their new album, The Clearing, played a sold out show at the Brooklyn Paramount on Friday, Sept. 19th. 

Rowsell, decked in the stunning chartreuse leotard pictured on the new album’s cover, commanded the stage with the flare and playfulness of a natural performer. She took on remarkably different affects throughout the set, from a golden-age Broadway prima donna to a (comically barefoot) dictator, marching around stage with a megaphone for the hard vocals of “Yuk Foo” and “Play the Greatest Hits.” For other songs, like “Just Two Girls” and “The Sofa,” the atmosphere became more intimate, her carefree gracefulness bringing to mind how one might dance alone in their bathroom while getting ready to go out.

Rowsell’s rich vocals were accompanied by Joff Odie on guitar, Theo Ellis on bass, Joel Amey on drums and Ryan Malcolm on keys, who were all similarly theatrical. Ellis was particularly engaging, moving around the stage and rallying the crowd with clapping rhythms and call-and-responses. 

The Clearing leans hard into 70’s-80’s glam rock nostalgia with modern pop influence. The set list for this tour ranges in style, from punky tracks to soft ballads—an assortment that wouldn’t work if it wasn’t for the earnestness and coherence of their common themes: love, heartbreak, wildness, growth and the passage of time. Rowsell’s songwriting signature is present in the twisting of colloquial phrases as far as they can be taken: “to make a song and dance about it” in “Thorns” and “to see the wood for the trees” in “White Horses.” This is a band that knows the power of references to evoke an atmosphere. The lyrics are strikingly conversational, though still utterly singable, which creates an interesting phenomenon in a crowd.

In just the first few moments of a song, people would turn to their friends instead of the stage. Fans didn’t just dance or sing along, but performed the songs for each other, mouthing the lyrics that fit their relationship. This is music to be shared with a best friend.

Altogether, Wolf Alice offered the delightfully cliché performance of a true rock concert, including swaying raised lighters (or phone flashlights) and trying to catch flying guitar picks thrown into the crowd. However, there was no charade of leaving the stage for the audience to demand an encore. Instead, the crowd waited patiently, knowing the concert couldn’t finish without their most popular song, “Don’t Delete the Kisses.” 

The song’s signature guitar feedback loop began to whir, and the crowd dissolved into clusters of dancing friends.