They were on the long list for BBC sound of 2015,
toured with Alt-J and are now nominated for the Mercury Prize. You might have
already guessed, or just read the title, but I’m talking about Wolf Alice! On
their way to take over the world they were so kind to make a stop in the sold
out Rotonde at the Botanique in Brussels. I put on my dancing shoes and got
hydrated for a night of singing along to songs from possibly the best album of
the year.
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| Credit: Mike Massaro for DIY magazine |
After getting thoroughly checked at the entrance of
the venue (thank you ISIS) we got into an already pretty full Rotonde.
Supporting Wolf Alice that night was Melting Time. As the tradition from the
Botanique prescribes it was again a band from our own small country. They
should be good for 30 minutes of entertainment but started to get a bit
annoying and boring after 15 minutes. If you closed your eyes so you didn’t got
distracted by the over the top 'dancing' from their guitarist you could hear
some hints of Joy Division and Jim Morrison. Sadly we could also hear some Editors,
who are not on my favourite bands list. Still a shout out to the female bass
player! We all know that those are the coolest girls walking on this planet. I’m
not just saying that because I’m a girl who plays bass. We can just agree that
it’s a well-known fact!
When the venue started to get more crowded, it also got
darker outside and rain started pouring into the not so decent roof of the
Botanique. Thank goodness we managed to keep it dry in the Rotonde. Well for as
long as they didn’t start playing ‘Bros’ and I wouldn’t end up as a crying
mess.
With opener ‘Your Loves Whore’ we could already see
that the crowd was going to be the “stand still and watch” kind of crowd. The
distance between the band and the crowd was even in such a small venue so big. ‘Freazy’,
one of their more poppy songs from the album set a chill vibe and when ‘Bros’
started playing even some people took the adventures choice to start dancing. From
my experience at concerts in the Botanique you can say it’s a miracle.
Finally ‘You’re a Germ’ was there and Ellie proved
that how tiny she may be, she can produce a lot of noise. Then we went straight
back to the fun popsongs we started off with. Great songs like ‘Lisbon’ and ‘The
Wonderwhy’, which both have some sing along allures, didn’t got the people too enthusiastic.
Oldie, ‘Storms’ was as tight and shiny as Theo’s pants and fresh newbie ‘Swallowtail,’ which was according to drummer Joel Amey the
best song of the evening, it was a nice intermezzo to calm down before the big
storm started. ‘Fluffy’, ‘She’ and ‘Moaning Lisa Smile’ came together as one
and formed a bold and loud entity. The crowd screamed their lungs out for
almost 10 minutes and was left tired and sweaty.
Good choice of the band to start their encore with the
quiet and modest ‘Blush’ where Ellie asks us if we are happy now. Yes, we sure
were very happy! But even good things come to an end. When it’s an end like ‘Giant
Peach’ we don’t have many reasons to complain. Theo’s and Ellie synchronic dancing
deserves more credit than every single move Alex Turner and his hips ever got
praised for. Now all we can do is hope that in February I can update you all on
their passage in the Trix in Antwerp.
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| Credit: Aurélie Léchenault |
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