Wolf Alice are always reliably good value. But even by their (high) standards, their Sunday night takeover of the Royal Albert Hall was something special.
Curated by Robert Smith of The Cure as part of the Royal Albert Hall’s Teenage Cancer Trust series, theirs was the last gig after a week of similarly excellent names: Elbow, the Manic Street Preachers and Mogwai among them.
And if this was the climax, then they certainly came out swinging. As singer Ellie Rowsell put it, “I want to have the best Sunday night ever, and I want you to as well.”
Over the course of a tight hour and a half set, they packed in enough big hits to banish even the most resilient Sunday scaries. It wasn’t just a case of running through their usual setlist, either: this felt intentionally different, a chance to be playful and experiment a bit. Things kicked off with a deep cut from their second album, Heavenward (played live for the first time since 2020), before turning to more modern fare, chiefly songs from their excellent 2025 offering The Clearing.
We had White Horses – one of the album’s more overlooked numbers, given fresh, punky life here, before the band launched into Just Two Girls, Rowsell’s breezy tribute to female friendship. There was also Leaning Against the Wall, the band’s gorgeously lush ode to attraction, performed here against a hot pink spotlight.
So far, so standard – they even rounded off the first section of the night with How Can I Make It Okay, with its pulsing synths and gauzy melodies giving way to a rumbling guitar solo.
But Wolf Alice isn’t a band that shies away from taking the big swings. This wasn’t their highest-energy set by any means: their angriest, snarling songs like Play The Greatest Hits, You’re A Germ and Yuk Foo were very much absent.
But in its place was something far more interesting – namely, the band inviting four session musicians onstage to perform a traditional Irish folk reel, as well as two unreleased tracks from the vaults.
“We’re going to try something a bit different tonight,” Rowsell told the crowd. “Bear with us.”
For the superfans, this was manna from heaven, as well as a chance for Wolf Alice to show they can do softness as well as steel – a particular highlight was the gossamer-thin Gospel Oak, performed by Rowsell against a spare musical backdrop, in a voice so delicate it broke with emotion towards the end.
It was an inflection point in the night, quickly followed by a flurry of big hitters. Delicious Things was first, followed by Lipstick, and the bouncy, triumphant Bread Butter Tea Sugar – a gorgeous shoulder-shrug of a song with a driving rock finish.
As the night closed out, the hits came thick and fast. There was Bros, because of course there was – full of joyous euphoria – and The Clearing’s big single, Bloom Baby Bloom. But the best was saved for last: the chance to hear the hall’s massive church organ in action, providing the thunderous backing track for The Last Man on Earth, before the bubbly, synth-filled Don’t Delete The Kisses rounded things off for good.
“Thank you for allowing us to play songs we haven’t played for some time and some we haven’t played forever,” Rowsell told the crowd as they left. What a treat.
Elbow at Royal Albert Hall: Teenage Cancer Trust gigs kick off in emotive fashion
James Blake at Union Chapel review: gorgeous intimacy from the king of introspection
Lola Young at the Palladium review: A generational talent makes her comeback
Raye: This Tour May Contain New Music at the O2 review – she's got that serious star quality
