Wolf Alice Live at Finsbury Park: Britain’s Best Band Comes Home
In this blog post written just over a year ago, I proclaimed Wolf Alice as Britain's best band. I wrote that just after the band had played a sunset show on the Other Stage at Glastonbury. Just over a year later, the band took to the stage in their biggest headline show to date, in front of 45,000 people in North London's Finsbury Park. Shows in this North London venue have proven to be huge catalysts in recent years; Sam Fender's performance in 2022 propelled him further up festival bills and into football stadiums. His lead support that day, Fontaines D.C., would have their own moment in the North London sunshine in 2025, which in turn propelled them into arenas and festival headline slots.
The day was a mini-festival curated with an exceptional, heavily female-led lineup. Rising indie-rockers Florence Road kicked off the afternoon, followed by the dark, atmospheric sounds of guitar band Keo. Keo completely commanded the early afternoon crowd, cutting through the summer heat with heavy, brooding grunge riffs and a captivatingly moody intensity that set a perfectly raw alternative tone. As the North London sun beat down, Rachel Chinouriri delivered a gorgeous set of summery indie-pop before Swedish star Lykke Li brought her signature electronic dream-pop to the massive crowd.
Providing the final spark of main support was The Last Dinner Party. Entirely undaunted by the 45,000-strong audience, they delivered a rapturously received, masterfully theatrical sub-headline performance. Their thunderous baroque rock, intricate harmonies, and dramatic stage presence proved exactly why they are destined for massive headline slots of their own.
For Wolf Alice, the magnitude of what this show represented was deeply intertwined with the journey that brought them here. It was the culmination of years of hard work, relentless touring, starting in the grassroots venues that are now fewer and farther between and building a following one gig at a time. Four albums in and now signed to a major label, they are starting to reap the rewards. Wolf Alice’s story and songwriting has always been underpinned by a profound sense of place. Finsbury Park and North London are home. Frontwoman Ellie Rowsell and bassist Theo Ellis grew up just a short distance away, while the venues where Rowsell and guitarist Joff Oddie played their very first gigs sit just a stone’s throw from the park.
While some might expect the band to play it cool and ignore the geographical connection, geography has always been a core narrative in Wolf Alice's songwriting. On 'The Sofa', Rowsell sings of her roots: "Feels a little like I'm stuck in Seven Sisters / North London, oh, England, and maybe that's okay." While previous records found them yearning for the Hollywood Hills or drinking liquid rose on 'The Beach', it feels fitting that this evolved version of Wolf Alice has returned home. Having explored the world both literally and sonically, they now know exactly where their heart lies. A palpable sense of pride washes over Rowsell as she surveys the crowd, as if something magical. “I hope you have the best day ever!” she beams, her face completely lit up with joy.
You can also sense that they can’t quite believe they’re here. Bassist Theo Ellis looks out across the crowd. “Finsbury Park, you have no idea how much this means to us. I grew up just over there,” he points into the middle distance. “The weekend is still young; they’ve kept the pubs open as late as possible for us,” he jokes.
Given the setlist, it was almost impossible for the crowd not to have the time of their lives. Following a vibrant performance of 'Bloom Baby Bloom', which was punctuated by early bursts of white confetti, the band struck a flawless balance between their latest album, 'The Clearing', and their back catalogue. Theo Ellis held the groove together with a pulsing, steady bassline that anchored the newer tracks seamlessly alongside older fan favourites. A few surprises kept the crowd on their toes: 'Lisbon', the sweet, springy track from 'My Love Is Cool', arrived early in the set, while Rowsell delivered a gorgeously stripped-back rendition of their 2013 B-side 'White Leather'. Perched atop a column nestled in the star-shaped cutout at the back of the stage, her raw, unfiltered vocals floated over a hushed, captivated park, proving that the band can captivate just as easily with a whisper as they do with a roar.
The performance put the sheer variety of their discography on full display. 'White Horses', driven by drummer Joel Amey, truly came into its own live, transforming the park into a shifting sea of bouncing bodies. The live version weaponised its relentless, krautrock-infused synth loop, building a hypnotic wall of sound alongside Joff Oddie’s biting, textured guitar riffs. Later, 'Bros', an indie ode to the power of friendship, proved to be a deeply emotional moment for both the band and their thousands of adoring fans. As the screens superimposed vintage tour diary footage over live shots of the band on stage, audience members climbed onto shoulders to dance, sing, and share a massive, cathartic release. It felt like a collective look back at how far they’ve come together, wrapping the field in a shared sense of nostalgia and triumph
After the huge singalong that is ‘The Sofa’ and an explosive bellow of the line “Feels a little like I’m stuck in Seven Sisters, North London” (we’re on Seven Sisters Road), Rowsell reappears having swapped her exquisite white two-piece for an identical one in black, clutching a Gibson Flying V guitar, and ready to rock.
A roaring run of 'Yuk Foo', 'Play The Greatest Hits', and 'Smile' unleashed the punkier, visceral edge of their sound, with calls from bassist Theo Ellis to "open up the pit". Before the sludgy, shifting weight of 'Visions Of A Life' captured the sheer complexity of the band's creative mind. This track represents Wolf Alice at their absolute best, fluidly moving through moods from heavy, Sabbath-esque riffs to jazzy breakdowns and back again. It served as a fearless, shape-shifting finale that encapsulated everything bold and unpredictable about the group.
Unlike many groups of their size, they haven’t got here with a rinse-and-repeat formula. And it’s masterful hearing them mesh it all together.
'Don't Delete the Kisses' had been the band's set closer virtually since its release, but for Finsbury Park, it was moved forward to open the encore. Fans climb onto their friends' shoulders and scream the words back to the band on stage. A song that perfectly captures that warm fuzzy rush of falling in love with Rowsell singing “When I see you, the whole world reduces to just that room.” Wolf Alice’s best songs have always captured those feelings: of being here, of home and the life and friendships that happen around these streets. But they’re also about wanting to go further.
As a gigantic disco ball descends above the stage, Rowsell shares some words of encouragement with the crowd: “If you’ve got a crush, you should probably tell them. If you want to start a band, you should probably start one.”
During the encore, the band unleashed their biggest surprise of all.
At Glastonbury the previous year, they had caught everyone off guard on the Other Stage by beautifully sliding into a cover of Fleetwood Mac's 'Dreams'. Rather than treating it as a standard standalone cover, they cleverly hooked the 1977 classic onto the end of 'How Can I Make It OK?', smoothly transitioning into the iconic track just as the evening sun was setting over a massive, sunbaked crowd. It was a faithful, dreamy, confident nod to their musical lineage that showcased the sheer emotional richness of Rowsell's vocals
At Finsbury Park, they chose to up the ante entirely. Instead of sunset pop bliss, they tore into a roaring 90s alt-rock monolith, Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'. It was a genuine shock to the system that paid off beautifully. Tackling such an iconic and notoriously difficult anthem is a massive risk, but the band executed it with absolute precision. Rowsell tore through the opening verse and chorus with fierce, raw energy, prompting an immediate explosion of pogoing in the moshpit
The band finish things off with the blistering 'Giant Peach', one of their earliest singles, and another fitting ode to the place where you grew up. The track's jagged, explosive riffs tear through the venue, sparking a final wave of collective euphoria in the crowd. It is a masterclass in controlled chaos, proving that even as they conquer larger stages, Wolf Alice haven’t lost an ounce of their raw, visceral bite that made fans fall in love with them over a decade ago.
Wolf Alice have been brilliant since the beginning, but over the years, they have evolved into one of the absolute best around. They navigate the spaces between delicate shoegaze, dream-pop intimacy, and heavy rock with an effortless, chameleonic grace. During ‘Leaning Against The Wall’, Ellie Rowsell nods to a partner's romantic gesture, singing, “You put my name up in lights”. In these final minutes, Wolf Alice’s own name is spelt out in bulbs through the silver fringe framing the stage
It feels like a glowing testament to the years of hard work that led them here. This show was two things at once: a triumphant hometown celebration and a band setting the stage for their future, a future where they reign as the best band in Britain. There is a sense of earned majesty in how they command the room now, a far cry from the sweaty pub backrooms of their youth, yet entirely connected to that same hungry spirit. That Glastonbury headline slot no longer feels like a mere possibility; it's long overdue.
Long may their success continue. To use a song title of the band they covered at Finsbury Park, they are very much 'In Bloom'.