Dragging You Down To Hell

Wolf Alice @ Gramercy Park Hotel 8/3/2015
Fluffy / She / Your Love’s Whore / You’re A Germ / 90 Mile Beach / The Wonderwhy / Soapy Water / Lisbon / Storms / Bros / Blush / Giant Peach / Moaning Lisa Smile

This was some kind of industry showcase gig, so I don’t feel right writing about it as if it was a real show. Not because of the band – they were as good live as I’d hoped – but because they were playing to a room full of mostly rude and uninterested people. There were two women up at the front of the stage who were clearly having an amazing time and mouthing the words to every song, but I was cut off from them, and stuck near a group of obnoxious girls who were talking shit about those women because their enthusiasm was embarrassing to them, and they were ~concerned~ that they were bad for the band’s image. (Both of the excited women were overweight.) It was a room full of awful people, and every time I turned my head there were somehow more men and women wearing expensive fedoras. I feel bad for Wolf Alice, but they’re total pros, so they just played it without any apparent problem. I’m sure they’ve played to much worse crowds. I just want to see them play to a room full of people like those two excited women up front.

Wolf Alice “You’re A Germ”

I’ve spent a LOT of time with Wolf Alice’s music over the past month or so, and I love it more all the time. They have excellent range as a band – whereas a lot of other new rock bands seem to put all their eggs in one aesthetic basket, My Love Is Cool is eclectic but coherent. Their bread and butter is dynamic alt-rock, but the ballads and more atmospheric tracks are just as good and deepen the emotional dynamics of their record as a whole. But still, even in a year overflowing with excellent rock music, heavier songs like “You’re A Germ” and “Giant Peach” stand out as being both more raw and more elegantly crafted than the rest. This is where they really show off a mastery of dynamics, and make the songs feel as urgent and physical as a roller coaster ride. “You’re A Germ” in particular sounds like a Pixies song in which Black Francis is a woman and Kim Deal is a man – not simply because Ellie Rowsell is taking the lead, but because she screams out the chorus in a way that’s both totally unhinged and wryly theatrical.

Buy it from Amazon.