92. Wolf Alice

Rough Trade East

23 June 2015

After the glitter-fuelled sensory riot of Wolf Alice’s pre-album detonation at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, the big day had finally arrived. My Love is Cool, their debut album, was officially out, and I had managed to wrangle a set of gold-dust tickets for the launch show at Rough Trade East: a stripped-down, fifty-person affair, with notably fewer explosions and almost no risk of a glitter-based health and safety incident.

The band were, as expected, excellent. This was a more compact, less pyrotechnic version of the chaos they’d summoned previously, but what it lacked in spectacle, it made up for in intimacy and bite. They barrelled through “Fluffy”, “Giant Peach”, and “Bros” like a band that had been doing this for a decade, not one that had just released their debut. There’s a confidence to Wolf Alice that borders on telepathic; they move as one, tight, fearless, and ever so slightly unhinged.

Despite the tight confines of the shop floor, they still managed to conjure enough raw energy to spark a mini-mosh pit into life. A few songs in, the bassist took it upon himself to launch into the crowd with the kind of low-flying dive that Rough Trade’s insurance policy probably doesn’t cover.

Afterwards, the band lined up dutifully to sign records, wide-eyed and full of genuine enthusiasm. They chatted, they smiled, they shook hands. If there was any aloofness or cynicism behind the scenes, it didn’t show. For one brief, brilliant moment, everyone in the room believed in Wolf Alice, and honestly, it was hard not to.