Wolf Alice played to the indie youth of Nottingham and brought the half-way house down.
My expectations going to see NME’s wet dream of 2014 were, to be honest, not that high to begin with. They’re the kind of band that as a music writer and avid fan of Peace (NME’s chief wet dream), I felt obliged to go and see for myself. Lead singer Ellie Roswell (who, shocker, isn’t actually called Alice) is the poster girl for British indie pop-rock of our generation so again, as someone who bangs on about the lack of women in guitar music, I felt obliged to go check out what all the fuss was about. And as treacherous to the female musician community this may be to admit, I was pretty disappointed.
[quote]As treacherous to the female musician community this may be to admit, I was pretty disappointed.[/quote]
It’s worth admitting that I was hardly an expert on the band’s back catalogue prior to their Rescue Rooms set, and perhaps someone more familiar with it might have had a better time. But for such a popular live act that’s really no excuse. Gigs are for fans and newcomers alike, and I’ve certainly been to gigs or festival sets before as a tenderfoot and been complete won over. But something didn’t really click. I was looking at the incredibly excited gaggle of teenagers at the front (who I can only assume were experimenting with Class A narcotics of the ecstasy persuasion for the first time) and wondering what I was missing out on. Wolf Alice are certainly not bad musicians and NME must love them for some reason, but their lyrics are actually pretty mundane and without catchy melodies it results in not a little bit of durge. I came out of the gig remembering not one song to even attempt to hum on the long walk home. Didn’t even have my iPod. Nightmare.
[quote] I came out of the gig remembering not one song to even attempt to hum on the long walk home. [/quote]
It would be wrong of me to completely dismiss the aforementioned gaggle of adolescents and their enthusiasm. Wolf Alice are clearly doing something right to be inspiring such a youthful cult following and maybe if you were caught up in the fervour the MDMA mob it would have been enjoyable. So for the front half of the gig the house was brought downtown. For the rest of us however, there was barely a foot tap in sight.
Liv Clark
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