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On Saturday (Sep 15), Wolf Alice visited Thailand for the first time ever for the second edition of Mangosteen Music Festival. It’s needless to say how splendid they were on stage as everybody in the room was finding themselves crazily jumping and shouting along the whole show.
Enveloping itself with women empowerment theme, the whole lineup is indeed women/women-led bands with powerful dynamics and charisma. Thanks to Mangosteen Music Festival for bringing altogether the city’s favourite female artists— Yellow Fang, Violette Wautier and Wolf Alice, on the same stage. The night at Voice Space was, indeed, a night to remember.
Despite the short delay, Yellow Fang got the night started brilliantly as the event’s first act. Known as one of the solid indie rock bands in underground scene across Asia, the three-piece female group captured the audience’s attention with their aggressive yet melodically elegant dynamics. (Try the taste of Yellow Fang’s latest track “If Only”, below)
Aside from the weird stage positions that made the band separated a bit too far from the audience’s sight, Yellow Fang still rocked. Their strong guitar chugs screaming alongside bass and drums syncronised harmoniously with the bass vocals. No one could resist the band’s energetic and friendly characters that shone out on the stage. All I could spot was that everybody jumping and dancing around happily.
Moving on to the second act of the night, dressed in blue jeans, black camisole and yellow jacket, Violett Wautier smiled at fans before introducing herself and her backup band. The show was lovely. The former contestant of The Voice Thailand proved the whole room her singing and performing talents.
Her smiles and sweet voices during her 1-hour performance, undoubtedly, melted the crowd’s heart, especially, when she emotionally delivered a sad romantic background of her latest single “Drive”. (Listen to the track, below)
The light on the stage went off circa half an hour after the second act. What I could feel was the tension and the excitement from people within the hall as rarely anyone had left the hall for smoking or toilet at all.
And when the clock hit 10.05pm, before I, stood Ellie Rowsell, Joff Oddie, Theo Ellis and Joel Amey. The whole hall went crazy, literally, as Wolf Alice heated up the night first with “Your Love’s Whore”. Throughout the night, people swirled and sang out loud along the show non-stop.
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The whole place was on fire when the teen-angst track “Yuk Foo” took over the hall. Being no stranger to the abrasive guitars, Rowsell and Oddie just constantly chugging theirs heavily delivering the aggressive roars to the ears of all fans tonight.
Didn’t want to waste any single second, the British four-piece rock group cooled down their rage with a less heavy track like “You’re A Germ” and the dreamy, shoegaze-like piece “Heavenward”.
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“Don’t Delete The Kisses” caused all fans into a big cheer. Hips swaying and hands throwing up high in the air were the whole hall’s gestures of the moment. I’d say that Ellie that I saw at the beginning who won’t stop screaming “I wanna fuck all the people I meet
Fuck all my friends and all the people in the street” had now completely disappeared as the lady in the floral dress on stage before my eyes now was completely a dreamy, innocent and hopelessly romantic girl. Well, just like how the lyrics sings “I’m electric, a romantic cliché”.
At this point, I had to admit that Rowsell made me see her as an innocently romantic girl through the impeccable uses of her voice and playful yet confused gestures that all could give the life to the lyrics vividly.
The show continued with songs from Vision Of Life. Those include “St. Purple & Green”, “Beautifully Unconventional”, “Formidable Cool” and “Sad Boy”. Still, up until now, people seemed to know all the words to every song the band played so far. And as the more it’s getting late at night, the more energy has risen among the crowd. Not to waste any moment, Wolf Alice earned big cheers from the crowd bringing their former hits— “Lisbon”, “Silk” and “Bros”.
“Khob Khun Ka. This is so amazing. You guys are wonderful. I really want to move here.” Rowsell said after finishing “Silk”. Meanwhile, the bassist Ellis, then, stole the crowd’s fondness when he agreed with Rowsell and added his appreciation and gratitude towards all the friendship and supports he felt on the night.
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After a short friendly conversation, the British alt-rockers brought their fans back to an aggressive rock performance again with “Space & Time”, “Visions of a Life” and “Fluffy”. And before heading to “Moaning Lisa Smile” that should have been the last song of the night, Rowsell paused the show for a moment to thank Yellow Fang and Violette Wautier as they both helped Mangosteen Music Festival to turn out this great.
Well, how polite and lovely Ellie Rowsell was! I couldn’t find any reason to not appreciate this lady and her bandmates.
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However, the folks tonight wouldn’t let Wolf Alice say goodbye that easy as after the last note of “Moaning Lisa Smile” went to silence, the crowd immediately started shouting for an encore. And Wolf Alice were just kind enough to have mercy upon us by picking up their microphone, guitars, bass and drumsticks and starting to excite the audience with two more songs— “Blush” and “Giant Peach”.
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I’d say that it’s been quite awhile since I literally have enjoyed such performance like tonight. These British four-piece alternative rockers, indeed, accomplished in bringing their powerful, rare and raw performance before to soothe the appetite of hundreds of alternative rock greedy souls. All the irritation like the delay, the strange stage position and such at the beginning of the concert seemed to be little problems as this moment we all just stood speechless as we just couldn’t stop replaying all the things that happened tonight inside our heads.
The show was worth every penny spent on the tickets. Maybe worth even more, I supposed.
