Wolf Alice, Dingwalls, London

On their return to London after touring the UK it’s pretty clear that Wolf Alice are ready for a party. There are bunches of bright red balloons surrounding the stage and, surreally, they enter the stage to ‘You Sexy Thing’ by Hot Chocolate.

Tonight Dingwalls is sold out and it’s owned by Wolf Alice. In a recent interview with DIY the band had said how they’d already moved on from their recently released ‘Blush’ EP to much more interesting sounds and tonight that’s apparent. They rip through their set playing an album’s worth of material – and what an album that would be. Enough to make you think, on the night the Mercury Prize is given out, are we listening to next year’s winner?

What becomes apparent tonight is that one of the special things about them is how they effortlessly they flit between tender, shimmering beauty and swathes of guitar and feedback, most of the time in one song. Loud and quiet might be an old trick but there aren’t many bands doing it with the art and seductiveness that Wolf Alice are doing it at the moment.

They also have a natural ear for a melody that gets the crowd pogoing around right from the start. They start with new song and great pun ‘Moaning Lisa’s Smile’ as well as other new tracks ‘Your Love’s Whore’ and ‘Baby Ain’t Made of China’ as well as mesmerising early track, Leaving You, with Ellie Rowsell’s hair draped over the mic stand as she sings. It’s ‘Lisbon’ out of the new songs that make you really step back and take notice: its toe tapping melody torn apart by a gigantic wall of feedback. It’s astonishing.

The rest of the show doesn’t let up. For the effervescent ‘Bros’ you can feel the floor moving. The ‘Blush’ tracks also sound ferociously catchy. The crowd are so into it that bassist Theo playfully warns them about stepping on his pedals.

For an encore they bound back on stage and play ‘an old one’ (which means from a year ago), ‘Fluffy’ b-side ‘White Leather’. And then it’s ‘Fluffy’, its revved up chorus getting the crowd jumping as one big sweaty mass. Guitarist Joff looks out into the crowd, genuinely moved. ‘This means so much to us’. Young fans stay behind to grab the balloons and get photos. It’s a show they want to remember and say they were there.