I left the Middle East on Wednesday with one thought kicking around in my mind – I’m never going to see Wolf Alice in a venue that small again.
The lead-up to the grunge-y British four-piece’s success has grown rather long in the tooth, buy cialis as the band has been buzzing around the blogosphere since 2012. After leaving a trail of EPs and scattered U.S. shows like breadcrumbs for their growing fanbase, cialis they finally released their debut album, stuff My Love Is Cool, this past June – and the long wait is likely the only reason that Wolf Alice was playing the Middle East and not selling out somewhere like the Sinclair or Royale, because yes, their debut record lives up to all the years of hype.
Wolf Alice are often categorized as a grunge act, alongside 90s namechecks like Hole and Garbage, but My Love Is Cool transcends genre as easily as the band eschews it. “We once went to a ’90s music quiz,” lead singer/guitarist Ellie Rowsell told NME in a recent interview, “and we scored zero points. So I’m not so sure we’re the ’90s band everyone thinks we are.”
It’s true, My Love Is Cool touches on the darkness of grunge and the blistering guitar riffs of the stadium punk of yesteryear, but its tracks are wrapped in an unmistakable polished sheen more often found in electronic music, or even pop. With a sound befitting of the most cavernous of arenas (in a good way), I was wondering whether the band would be able to recreate the full scope of these tracks in a tiny Cambridge rock club – luckily for me, they were up for the challenge.
After an energetic opening set from punky Buffalo garage-rockers Made Violent stirred the crowd from their Wednesday night stupor, Wolf Alice filled the Middle East basement with a veritable wall of sound, blasting through both new material and old with the ease and confidence of a band with a much longer discography. Rowsell’s voice floated above guitarist Joff Oddie’s echoey melody as it rose from an ominous whisper to a bone-chilling howl on crowd favorites “Silk” and “Moaning Lisa Smile.” If there’s one thing at which Wolf Alice excels more than most other bands, it’s the slow build-up of a live rendition. Even on sleeper “Swallowtail,” drummer Joel Amey took the mic and led the crowd through a few verses of folky ballad before methodically crescendo-ing over a buttress of sustained psych-rock guitar that blew back the hair on those with the great fortune/misfortune of standing near the amps.
Wolf Alice’s stop in Boston made for one of the best shows I’ve seen all year, marked by a sound too big to stay a secret for much longer. Do yourself a favor, and get ahead of the game while you still can – listen to My Love Is Cool here.
