Born and bred in London, the band Wolf Alice made its way across the pond to Oakland’s Fox Theater on Oct. 10, marking its first stop in California — or what the band lovingly described as “this strip of highway.”
This pit stop in the Bay Area was one of the band’s last in the United States, and unfortunately, if you were present for its show in Oakland, you could tell.
Wolf Alice is a well-known staple of the alternative, indie rock — and arguably shoegaze — scene, especially in the U.K. The band is composed of four members: lead vocalist Ellie Rowsell, guitarists Joff Oddie and Theo Ellis and drummer Joel Amey. The North American leg of the tour went on without Oddie, who is awaiting the birth of his first child. Instead, he was replaced with guitarist John Victor and Ryan Malcolm on the keys.
The band is five months into touring its fourth studio album, The Clearing, shedding its beloved grunge reputation in favor of a stripped-back, shining ’70s nostalgia.
The downswing wasn’t so palpable at first: Wolf Alice started out slowly with “Thorns,” the first track on its latest album. Rowsell was backlit by a lone spotlight, the vocalist strutting as her shadow lurked melodramatically across the stage. The silhouette left nothing on display but her vocals.
At the end of the song, the spotlight reversed, revealing an embellished, white, glam rock getup. Rowsell wore a flouncy yet tight jeweled bodysuit atop a pair of opaque white tights and slouchy boots. Somewhere between David Bowie, ABBA and an ill-fitting diaper, some rock star must have come out of retirement to lend Rowsell the outfit.
The staging was minimal, as stripped as the band’s new image and as improvised as a last minute “Mamma Mia!”-themed birthday party with silver wall tinsel draped from the back wall and a lone disco ball hanging from the ceiling.
Throughout the concert, the songs came in quick succession: “White Horses” to “Just Two Girls” to “The Sofa.” Wading through Wolf Alice’s discography, crew members swapped guitars from off the band’s backs.
That said, when Wolf Alice does perform, it does so flamboyantly. For guitarists Ellis and Victor, every strum was an over-the-top performance that left them hunched and posing. Both impressive and frivolous, they spent almost as much time playing as they did doing tricks and posing with their instruments.
Halfway through the concert, the band kicked things up with “Bread Butter Tea Sugar”; Rowsell stood at the center of a star-shaped spotlight and propped herself up into a ’70s power pose. The spangled glitz of classic rock ’n’ roll almost seemed like it never went out of style with the band’s slow struttin’ guitar solos and hair blowing in the wind.
But by the third time Rowsell dropped to her knees and let the wind take the lead, the shtick got stale.
Maybe it was the mixing, maybe it was the accents, but something about Wolf Alice’s performance was distinctly illegible. Throughout the performance it was hard to tell if the tracks were too loud or if the singing, although undeniably skilled, was inaudible due to Rowsell’s thick North London accent. While the songs sounded familiar, they were indistinguishable, an incoherent mix of recognizable sweet sounds and utter gibberish.
Near the end — arguably at the peak of the performance — the band departed from the steady and dramatic with the song “Sadboy.” From its album Visions of a Life, the song is more noise — or screams — than is characteristic of Wolf Alice. While this added a different flavor to the Wolf Alice experience, the screams melding into gritty sound did not help with the inaudibility.
Although an encore is never guaranteed, the quintet propped itself back on stage to perform their biggest hit to date, “Don’t Delete the Kisses.” With red wine by Rowsell’s side and beer in the boys’ hands, the band let guitar tricks and power poses go by the wayside, as they simply moved through the motions of the song.
Sure, Wolf Alice left something on stage, but I sincerely hope it wasn’t its best.