WOLF ALICE BLOOM AGAIN | THE CLEARING TOUR: MANCHESTER
LIVE REVIEW | WOLF ALICE | AO ARENA, MANCHESTER | 28th November 2025 by Rachel Puk
On November 28th, Wolf Alice kicked off the UK leg of their first ever arena tour in Manchester. The AO Arena was swirling with excited faces on this special Friday night. Frontwoman Ellie Rowsell and her bandmates each planted the seeds for a blooming stage of dance and song. The storytelling setlist began with ‘Thorns’, where the band eased themselves and us into their first ever arena performance in the UK. More than a concert, the set in all its glittering lights and tinsel fringe encapsulated the room into the new 70s warm rock world of Wolf Alice for the next hour and a bit.
With wind blowing through her hair, Rowsell consumed her audience without hesitation to perform the band’s leading single ‘Bloom Baby Bloom’ on her star-pointed runway stage. Vocals flicked between an opulent softness to carnal rock. The room was her chorus, every face under the mirrorball sang in the Wolf Alice theatre once jaws were removed from the floor.
The band are a dynamic garden of performance. Rowsell stands beautifully oozing her rock and roll sleaze in a handmade bodysuit, but no member goes unnoticed. Joff Oddie on guitar, Theo Ellis on bass, Joel Amey on drums, and their touring keyboardist Ryan Malcolm perform to compliment and uplift their front-woman who blooms in her confidence and femininity.
Amey on drums shared the spotlight for ‘White Horses’. A change of pace, yet the room cheered a wave of excitement – commanded arms in the air for the crescendo bridge and cathartic chorus where Rowsell joins for a harmonious moment of excitement.
Performing the playful track ‘Just Two Girls’ after the screamer ‘Formidable Cool’ from their sophomore album Visions Of A Life epitomises the band’s creative spectrum. Any longtime fan in the audience will appreciate the set-list on this tour. Each of their eras is explored with nuance and cohesion. The shimmering synths of ‘How Can I Make it OK?’ from their colossal album Blue Weekend pulsated through the room as your ears react to your favourite song now being boomed through arena walls.
Hit song ‘Bros’ has the arena bouncing after Ellis recalls playing the song to an unimpressed room of 12 at the beginning of their career. Then, we are called by Rowsell for some screaming therapy in: thousands of us practice yelling “You fucked with my feelings!” The band harmonise bunched at the end of their runway, commanding the room with just their voices for ‘Safe From Heartbreak (if you never fall in love)’.
The crowd is untamed for ‘Yuk Foo’ and ‘Play the Greatest Hits’. Roars and stomps argue with Rowsell’s megaphone whilst the room flicks blue and red. The band sing us through the emotional highs and lows of their performance – shortly after the spotlight shines still for the piano led ballad ‘Play It Out’ – an ode to the woman’s experience growing older and facing motherhood. Quiet and introspective, eyes welled. A real highlight of the evening, looking up the arena is lit by torches swaying, and Rowsell expresses her gratitude.
The band’s encore consolidated our night of magnetic and rock-fulled beauty. The band’s biggest and best hit ‘Don’t Delete the Kisses’ uplifted the entire crowd high into starlight. The chorus one giant chant to epitomise the highs and lows of love and heartbreak, sacred to everybody in that room. A lullaby to ease us shortly back into busy Manchester. The band had multiple made-it moments throughout this performance – the show was special to both us and them.
I can’t spoil the whole setlist. Everyone must see this arena tour for themselves. An experience I’ll never forget, and dare I say the best show I have ever had the pleasure of attending… Wolf Alice have carefully crafted The Clearing Tour as a circus of instrumental mastery and theatrical performance exploring each of their distinctive eras as a band. Ellie Rowsell is a perfect show-woman in a musical age that can very often feel stagnant and unprogressive.
