129. Wolf Alice
The Forum
26 March 2016
The Forum in Kentish Town and I have history and not all of it pretty. This is the taped-off crime scene of many a promising band’s public collapse (Temples, I’m still looking at you), so I arrived with my oldest friend at the first night of Wolf Alice’s four-night residency here with a wary sense of déjà vu. Something always seems to go wrong at this venue.
The universe, it seems, agrees with me as we were confronted with the news that the band were taking to the stage with a man down. Bassist Theo Ellis was out with an elbow infection, which, whilst not quite the stuff of rock ‘n’ roll legend, is still enough to take a chunk out of what should have been a crowning victory lap for their debut album My Love Is Cool.
The last time I’d seen them, they’d been busy tearing a wormhole through Brixton Academy, so arriving here to the news of a hastily drafted replacement bassist felt a bit ominous. But then, out steps the new guy, who, according to the drummer mid-set, learned every single track in one day. And here’s the thing: you couldn’t tell. It was impressive.
Wolf Alice have always had the aura of a gang you’d very much like to join, the kind that looks cool leaning against a wall. Ellie Rowsell wasted no time addressing the absent Theo after opener “Your Love’s Whore”, rallying the crowd to raise their elbows in solidarity. It was a strangely sweet moment: part tongue-in-cheek tribute, part induction ceremony into their tribe.
By the finale, the camaraderie had gone full technicolour. At one point Ellie vaulted off the stage, singled out three fans at the barrier, and had security haul them up to join her on the platform to perform the cute sidestepping dance she and Theo usually share at the start of “Giant Peach”. They gave it everything, giddily shuffling from side to side while the crowd mirrored them. As the riff kicked in, the whole lot of them bounced like mad, huddled in a joyous knot as two confetti cannons erupted.
Theo’s absence might have been the story before the lights went down, but by the end, it was just a footnote. Tonight was indeed pure celebration, a reminder that Wolf Alice isn’t just another British rock band in an age when such things are in short supply. They’re a gang, a force and, elbow infections notwithstanding, very much the real thing.