Wolf Alice w/ The Blossom The Complex
Reviewed by Vanessa Holt
A great kick-off to the month, Wolf Alice stopped in Salt Lake on the tour of their newest album, Blue Weekend. Before being offered the chance to photograph them a coworker had brought up the band to me in a discussion. I had never heard of Wolf Alice before but during this discussion, there was nothing but good things spoken about the band. After hearing all that I was excited to hear them live. A couple of hours before doors opened, I was streaming their top few songs to get an idea of the type of sound and vibe that was going to be heard from the night. I was immediately intrigued by the alternative rock sound of it all. I was curious how they were going to be live.
The Blossom
We started off the night with The Blossom. When singer, Lily Lizotte took the stage I’m not sure if it was her fit or the way she had styled her hair, but I immediately thought of Christina Vidal’s character in Freaky Friday, Maddie. She had a perfect resemblance to the character with the sound of her music being indie pop and 90’s grunge sound. Her guitarist also reminded me of Scott Pilgrim only with twice the amount of energy. At first glance with the set, it seemed as though the majority of the crowd was also a stranger to Blossom’s music. But with each passing song, Lizotte slowly captured the hearts of the audience. People were dancing along and were amazed by the crazy performance that the band had put on.
Lizotte had a crazy dynamic with her guitarist. They were jumping around on stage and screaming lyrics in each other’s faces. It surprised me when they decided to slow it down during one song. They gave the drummer a break and it was just the two. It was a nice song because it wasn’t slowed down too much to where it threw off the energy in the room. It was a song slow enough to give everyone a break from jumping on their feet and just sway along. However, they weren’t going to leave it on that note they ended the set with one more song giving it their all. They ended the song with a full instrumental outro strumming all the strings it was quite the treat to see and I wouldn’t be opposed to watching The Blossom perform live ever again.
Wolf Alice
Just before Wolf Alice took the stage, I took another look around the room. While the show might not have been sold out it very much felt like a sold-out show. Everyone was buzzing with excitement. The band didn’t have any lights out or some crazy intro before they ran up, they had simply walked on and gestured for the crowd to make some noise, and everyone went crazy. I have never attended a show where an artist had a simple entrance in that type of way. However, it felt like one of the most impactful entrances I had ever seen. And from how loud the crowd was it sounded like everyone else loved it too.
Wolf Alice’s energy wasn’t super chaotic or crazy, but it was enough energy to keep everyone excited. The crowd was singing along to the lyrics and dancing along. There wasn’t a single person in the audience who was just standing still. Everyone was packed into the standing room. There weren’t very many people up in the bar. I had never seen that before. It seemed like everyone came to dance and enjoy the music and that’s just what they did.
While the entire band was all-around amazing, I was blown away by vocalist Ellie Rowsell. Hearing her vocals live was far better than hearing the recording of the songs. I can safely say that she is one of the best vocalists I had ever seen live before and I would happily take the chance to listen to them again if the opportunity presented itself.
There was a lot about that night that made it a good show. I think the biggest thing was that it was a show with very little to say. It felt like a show where you just had to be there. There’s nothing but good things happening at a Wolf Alice concert. I’m sure many of the people who listen to Wolf Alice would say that their songs live take them to a whole different level. I could give you the best reviews of these bands, but they’re two bands you must witness live to understand where it all comes from. They proved that you don’t always need crazy backdrops, tracking sounds, or even a crazy lighting set to put on an amazing show. At the end of the day, it really is just about the music and getting lost in it all.