Photo: Daniel Quesada
Over the past few years, Brixton Academy has been the final hurdle at which countless bands have fallen on their ascent to stardom. All-too-often, buckling under the weight of too much hype and too little material, musicians are swallowed up by the size and significance of a venue for which they are simply not prepared. Not so for Wolf Alice.
"BRIXTON!" yells Ellie Rowsell as the band finish their opening two songs - her signature yelp whipping the crowd into a bigger frenzy than even the shoegazy, stop-start brilliance of 'Your Love's Whore' could muster. When she hops down to the front row to take a party hat from a fan, which she wears proudly until vehement head-banging knocks it off, the crowd surges gleefully forward.
The rest of the band too, exude a wild-eyed charisma. It's not effortless - Theo Ellis is dressed so glam-rock that he's one step away from Spinal Tap territory, and he jumps onto Joel Amey's kick drum with the self-consciousness of someone who's seen his heroes do the same on TV - but it's this very unashamed enthusiasm that makes Wolf Alice great. They're not pretending it's effortless. They're trying very hard indeed, and they're happy for you to know that.
Behind them, the fluid, glittering artwork to My Love Is Cool looms large amongst thousands of blinking LEDs, which twinkle peacefully during the quieter numbers, and explode in shimmering fits during the likes of 'Moaning Lisa Smile' and 'You're A Germ'. The latter of those proves one of the set's highlights - it's difficult not to feel both euphoric, and laden with the need to apologise to her personally, when Rowsell sings, at the top of her lungs, 'You're a dodgy fucker as well."
The between-song chat is kept to a minimum - but any temptation to put this down to stage-fright is dispelled with every aggressive riff, rolling drum lick and perfectly pitched vocal.
Less than a year ago, when the band played London's 1,000-capacity Heaven, they told the crowd, "We never thought we would play to this many people." Tonight, there are 5,000 people screaming their name, and Wolf Alice have never looked so at home.
Wolf Alice played:
My Love Is Cool
Your Love's Whore
Freazy
Bros
Soapy Water
Lisbon
Silk
The Wonderwhy
Storms
Swallowtail
Fluffy
She
Moaning Lisa Smile
You're a Germ
Encore:
Turn to Dust
Blush
Giant Peach
