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Sep 24, 2025 By Mark Redfern Photography by Wendy Lynch Redfern Web Exclusive

Despite Wolf Alice being one of my favorite bands of the last decade—with all of their previous three albums at or near the top of my album of the year lists—I had never caught the band live before. They never played a festival I was at, were never playing in their native London (also my hometown) when I was there, and rarely performed close to where I currently live in Virginia. If a band is playing three or more hours away on a week night it’s hard to make the trip. But all that changed when Wolf Alice performed on September 13, 2025 at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. Sure it was three hours away, but it was on a Saturday night and on top of that it was an early show, with doors opening at 6 p.m. and the band going on at 7:30 p.m. owing to a late night show from another artist that night. It was the second of two sold-out shows in the nation’s capital.

We didn’t make it in time to see the opener (sorry Willy Mason!), but got there just in time for Wolf Alice, going to our favored 9:30 spot at the front but to the left of the stage. My 12-year-old daughter Rose is still getting used to packed club shows (although she’s been to quite a few now) and at the 9:30 Club likes the comfort of being near the wall, but also close enough to see. And since my wife Wendy is usually taking photos, it’s close enough to the photo pit.

Wolf Alice were touring in support of their recently released fourth album, The Clearing, and so the set was heavily populated with tracks from it, but the band also made room for old favorites. Whereas the band’s previous three albums—My Love Is Cool (2015), Visions of a Life (2017), Blue Weekend (2021)—were all wonderfully eclectic, jumping genres from song to song, The Clearing sticks to one consistent style, drawing primary influence from ’70s rock, with Fleetwood Mac in particular singled out by the band. While a handful of critics and fans have bemoaned the loss of the band’s punkier side and their ambitious genre switches, The Clearing has been well received and was nominated for the prestigious Mercury Prize (making them four for four, with each of their albums nominated—they won for Visions of a Life). Our own critic, Andy Von Pip, praised the album with a 9/10 review, writing that it’s “a classic that shows a band confident in their evolution, unafraid to shed what no longer fits, and stepping forward with renewed purpose.”

Wolf Alice opened the concert with Clearing album-opener “Thorns.” At first the stage was very dark, with dramatic lighting and fog, but then more light revealed front-woman Ellie Rowsell, who was clad in a leopard print leotard, black tights, and white boots, with blue eye shadow. It was quite a look and set the tone for her commanding stage presence.

Wolf Alice’s guitarist Joff Oddie had to sit out this tour, as it timed with the birth of his child. Filling in was John Victor from the fellow London band Gengahr. Having never seen Wolf Alice before, it’s hard to say how this affected the band’s sound, but it seemed that Victor fit right in. One wonders how long he rehearsed with the band. Victor, dressed in all black and with his hair almost in his face, looked like he belonged in Ride or some other early ’90s shoegaze band.

Right off the bat it was apparent that Rowsell’s vocals were just as powerful live, with fantastic range. Clearly there’s no studio trickery going on with their LPs, she’s just as capable of belting out loud punk anthems as she is singing soulful ballads.

For songs two and three Wolf Alice dipped into the back catalogue with My Love Is Cool’s “Your Loves Whore,” with Rowsell on electric guitar (which sounded epic), and Visions of a Life’s “Formidable Cool,” with Rowsell stalking the stage while her voice was filtered through an echo effect.

“We missed ya,” Rowsell then said to the audience. “We’re going to play some new songs from our new album. If I can remember how to play them, which I probably can’t,” she joked. Spoiler alert, unlike Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker, who forgot the lyrics to one new song at the Anthem in Washington, D.C. the weekend before, Rowsell did just fine.

Then as promised Wolf Alice played four songs from the new album: “Passenger Seat,” “Bloom Baby Bloom,” “Just Two Girls,” and “Leaning Against the Wall.” At one point the fan on the stage blew Rowsell’s hair back as she was singing and she looked like she was in an ’80s rock video.

Then we were treated to two Blue Weekend cuts—“How Can I Make It OK?” and “Safe From Heartbreak (If You Never Fall in Love).” “Let’s get the boys at the back up to the front for a little singalong,” Rowsell said before the latter. Drummer Joel Amey and touring keyboardist Ryan Malcolm joined Rowsell and bassist Theo Ellis at the front of the stage for a more stripped down “Safe From Heartbreak (If You Never Fall in Love)” backed by acoustic guitar, bass, and the wonderful harmonies of the group.

Amey returned to the kit to sing lead vocals on Clearing track “White Horses,” which Rowsell also sings on. The song rocked more live than the studio version. Two more Blue Weekend tracks (“Smile” and “Delicious Things”) followed. In between them, Ellis said: “I’ll tell you this for free. This is a legendary venue. Thanks for coming to see us. We love you. Someone buy me a drink!”

“Bread Butter Tea Sugar,” one of the highlights from The Clearing (shoulda been a single), thankfully was performed, it’s T. Rex-ian stomp going over well. Rowsell briefly left the stage and returned with a megaphone, but with its alarm going off at first. Then she sang the vocals to Visions of a Life’s “Yuk Foo,” one of the band’s more raucous numbers, through the megaphone, making for one of the more memorable moments of the show. There was a young girl (elementary aged, maybe eight or nine) down the front with her parents and at one point Rowsell went up to her and let her push the button that operated the megaphone alarm. Then they quickly launched into Blue Weekend’s “Play the Greatest Hits” for an impressive punk-fueled one-two punch.

The only slight disappointment of the evening was My Love Is Cool’s “Silk,” a fan favorite that was backed by a cool electronic drumbeat but was a bit more subdued and flat than the album version.

For Blue Weekend’s “No Hard Feelings” they stripped it back mainly to Rowsell’s vocals and Ellis’ base, as they sat next to each other.

My Love Is Cool’s “Giant Beach” would be a set closer for any other band, but there were still several songs to go when Wolf Alice launched into the mammoth song, the audience shook by the intense bass and swept over by the wall of sound, with Rowsell on guitar. At the end of the song she briefly played the guitar licks for The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” and Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” (R.I.P. Ozzy!). The internet tells me that’s a regular thing she does when playing “Giant Beach.”

Ellis joked that it had been nine hours since he asked for a drink and no one had brought him one yet. “Should we have a good ole fucking time or what?” he asked the audience before the band played “Bros,” one of the songs that initially put the band on the map.

The main set ended with “The Sofa,” the best single from The Clearing, which is an anthem for twenty- and thirtysomethings trying to work out their life and whether or not they should get off the sofa (or couch) and do something about their future. The band quickly returned to the stage for a two-song encore led by “Moaning Lisa Smile,” another of the band’s early singles (which was also included on the U.S. version of their debut album). They then ended with Visions of a Life’s “Don’t Delete the Kisses,” likely Wolf Alice’s best known song (it’s their top song on Spotify at least), the audience singing along to every word. Perhaps ending with a more epic rocker, such as “Giant Beach” or “Fluffy,” would’ve been the way to go, but this still worked. It was, however, a shame that they didn’t play another of their more recognizable songs, the chill-inducing “The Last Man on Earth.”

As the band left the stage Amey went out of his way to give his drum sticks to the young girl at the front, making it likely a night she will long remember (as will we too). Wolf Alice fully delivered, surpassing all lofty expectations I had for that band.

It’s no small feat to sell out two nights at the 9:30 Club, but one wonders why Wolf Alice aren’t even bigger in America and playing The Anthem instead. Certainly there’s a long history of British bands who play much bigger venues back home (case in point, Elbow play arenas in the UK but are also at the 9:30 Club this Friday). Breaking America is hard and requires a whole lot of money, effort, and touring. Every single one of Wolf Alice’s albums, including the new one, have been nominated for The Mercury Prize and have garnered rave reviews and album of the year mentions in the UK, where they’ve played the main stage at Glastonbury and headline large venues and where their last two albums have debuted at #1 on the charts. Some U.S. tastemakers have been more reserved however. None of their albums have achieved Best New Music from Pitchfork, with them all getting between a 7 and 7.4 rating. Pitchfork have also never interviewed the band as far as I can tell, but have done about 12 news items on them in 10 years (we’ve done 11 this year alone). Stereogum have barely covered them, beyond a few stray news items. No matter, Wolf Alice are doing fine. They recently played “Bloom Baby Bloom” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! (several weeks before he got briefly taken off the air) and if they continue playing shows as strong as the one at the 9:30 Club, their reputation and American audience can only grow.

www.wolfalice.co.uk

Read our interview with Wolf Alice on Blue Weekend.

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