My Top Band of 2015, back out treading the boards in 2016... after delivering very nearly Album Of The Year with their marvellously plangent, sparkling and spunky debut “My Love Is Cool”, plus very nearly Gig Of The Year in their startlingly powerful and thrilling Trinity set in April (gig 944), this extremely promising young London band somewhat blotted their copybook for me a little, last time out at the Bristol O2 Academy in September (gig 959), an over-emphasis on polish and slick professionalism for the step up to Academy Headliner level rather blunting their hitherto growling sharp edge “live”. Still, I snapped up a ticket quickly (I loves the O2 pre-sale, me!) and eagerly for this one, in the hope that Bristol was just an opening night bump in the road to world domination, and that they’d be back to their potent, powerful best. C’mon, boys (and girl), don’t let me down...!
I
was joined by recent gig buddy Stuart for this one and it was also his
turn to drive, so we hit the road at an early 6 pm, taking Stuart’s beat
route to Cowley on the Southbound ring-road, surprisingly
managing to get a parking spot immediately in the normally rammed-full
Tescos car park. Yay! Joined a queue to get in at doors, therefore, and
took a spot stage left down the front as this sold-out gig rapidly
filled up with a very young and seemingly predominantly
female glitter-clad audience, Stuart and I conspicuously feeling like
old fogies at this one...! First band on, Bloody Knees (again) joined us
at 7.45 in a whirl of hair and amphetamine-fast grungy rock riffery;
their Nirvana fixation is still very evident
indeed as 2 versions of “Territorial Pissings” flashed by, before they
got onto the slower, sludgier grunge material. The kids went nuts for
them, though, a circle mosh opening up as early as the third number, and
by their final, “Lithium”-lite number “I
Want It All”, the mosh was extensive and violently kinetic. For me,
though, it all seemed oddly dated, and the most entertaining part of
their set was noticing the vocalist’s arms seemed to stretch for further
than they biologically should...!
Next
up, Swim Deep, took us back a further decade in the rock’n’roll time
machine, their upfront, clean-sounding synth-embellished pop giving a
definite reverential nod to those new romantic early
80’s. The first number came across like John Foxx fronting Duran Duran,
and subsequent songs had inflections of OMD, “Temptation”-era Heaven
17, and even the slick AOR of Hall and Oates (yikes!). The crowd again
were up for them, though, the high-waisted and
effeminately voiced blond vocalist remarking, “Oxford, glad to see
you’re up for a party!” They threw everything they had, kitchen sink included, at their final
number “House Of Fun”, this elongated, clattering and chuntering number
proving the best of an interesting if not particularly
original set.
The
place was old school heaving and anticipation palpable, so when the
lights went out at 9.30 the screams erupted like a hockey international.
Guitarist Joff took the stage first, strafing the
crowd with some shimmering shoegaze riffery, before joined by his
bandmates for a textural intro piece before a surprisingly
overt-sounding “Your Love’s Whore”. Then the scalding, screeching
punk rock and strident, shouty chorus of “You’re A Germ” really
sent the place utterly bat-shit crazy, and we were away, good and
proper!
I’m
delighted to report that tonight Wolf Alice were back to their best
“live”, the power and searing passion fully restored, adding extra
dimensions to their intriguing shoegazey indie rock and
allowing it to really soar, and their kinetic, energetic “live”
performance onstage being reflected back by a rabidly enthusiastic young
crowd. An early, angular and bouncy “Bros” was both jaggedly powerful
and somewhat touching, and drew me into the fringes
of the mosh (partly to distance myself from the sharp-elbowed girl in
front of me), and “Lisbon” (preceded by bassist Theo announcing, “Yes!
Oxford! It’s fucking hot in here!”) was a metronomic and cacophonous
blend of strobe and white noise. Even the slow
numbers, such as an eerie, stripped and stretched “90 Mile Beach” and
an epic, backlit power ballad “Silk”, somehow collapsed into crescendos
of noise. This band had their mojo working tonight, no doubt...
“Fluffy”
was a careering delight, diminutive vocalist Ellie screaming the choral
hook like a banshee, and all too soon the 50 minute set was over in a
rush of sweat and strident power. A fragile
“Turn To Dust” opened up the encore before a singalong “Blush” segued
into inevitable finale “Giant Peach”, Ellie and Theo adopting ZZ Top
rock poses before the mad crescendo again saw a frenzied circle pit
open, before the riffs exploded into life, laying waste
to the crowd and providing an entirely apposite punctuation to a
brilliant set.
Grabbed
my breath and a set-list, then we hit the road, the searing snarl of
Wolf Alice ringing in our ears. Thankfully restored to full plangent
pomp, who’s to say 2016 won’t also be The Year Of
The Wolf?
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