Wolf Alice cover Nirvana at emotional homecoming show

Something special occurs during Wolf Alice’s big homecoming show at Finsbury Park.

As they play Bros – a song about the enduring bonds of friendship – the video screens flash up old clips of the band as scrappy newcomers, driving in cramped vans, downing shots and playing to an audience of one at Coventry’s Kasbah club.

They don’t make a big deal of it. Nobody on stage mentions the video. But the implication is clear: look how far we’ve come.

Formed 16 years ago by singer Ellie Rowsell and guitarist Joff Oddie, the band have slowly, but confidently, become the best young rock band in the UK.

On Sunday, they cemented their status by headlining their own mini-festival, topping a predominantly female bill that also included The Last Dinner Party, Lykke Li and Rachel Chinouriri.

That solitary fan shown on the big screen has expanded into a crowd of 45,000 – Wolf Alice’s biggest-ever audience. The emotion is amplified by the fact they’re playing in the north London neighbourhood where they met.

“I grew up over there and I live over there,” says bassist Theo Ellis, gesturing towards the horizon from the stage.

“You have no idea how much this means to us.”

Other bands might dwell on the moment, making a meal of the milestone. Wolf Alice are too cool for that.

Drummer Joel Amey punctures the pomposity during The Sofa – hamming up his accent as he sings about feeling “stuck in Seven Sisters, Norf Lahn-dan“.

Rowsell has to stifle her laughter as she finishes the song.

Still, the mile-wide smiles they wear throughout this tight, 100-minute show illustrate how proud they’re feeling.

“It’s going to be so special,” Ellis told me earlier this year. “Being able to play outside in the dark feels so exciting. It just builds a really special atmosphere.”

A day before the show, the feelings were more nuanced.

“Feeling cheeky hehehehehe and also sick,” the band posted on Instagram.

They needn’t have worried. Wolf Alice deliver a triumphant rock show that highlights the versatility of their songbook; and their growth as performers.

They strut onto the stage at 7:50pm, opening with Bloom Baby Bloom – a song that shifts from a funky piano intro to a titanic rock freak-out, with Rowsell’s choirgirl vocals suddenly becoming a throat-shedding wail.

It’s a thrilling start, and the pace barely lets up.

They gallop straight into White Horses, a highlight of their recent album The Clearing, before delving into their back catalogue for Formidable Cool – whose sleazy riff allows Rowsell to prowl along the catwalk, looking every inch a glam rock goddess.

The setlist is largely the same as their recent run of festival shows, but there are a few Easter eggs for the faithful.

Lisbon, a punky explosion of noise from their debut album, gets a rare outing. So does White Leather, a delicate, folky ballad that was the b-side of their debut single, Fluffy, back in 2012.

Rowsell sings the latter high above the audience, swinging her legs from a podium at the back of the stage, framed by a giant glittery star.

It’s one of the occasional concessions to stadium-level stagecraft the band have made since signing a major label deal with Sony in 2024.

They spray confetti into the audience to punctuate their biggest songs, and add an honorary fifth member, Ryan Malcolm, to flesh out their sound with swells of keyboard and additional rhythm guitar.

Rowsell even has a mid-set costume change, going from pristine white hotpants to an all-black outfit, drenched in cold water to battle the searing summer heat.

They switch ushers in the loudest portion of the band’s set, as they thrash out the combative Yuk Foo, Play the Greatest Hits (“it isn’t loud enough”) and Smile, a furious takedown of misogyny with a pile-driving bass riff.

They match the music’s energy on stage: Oddie throws his guitar into the air and slings it around his neck like a man possessed. Ellis punches the air with both fists. Rowsell climbs onto the drum riser and steals Amey’s bumblebee sunglasses while screaming into a megaphone.

After that concentrated blast of fury, we’re on a home run that includes the band’s most beloved hits – from Lipstick on the Glass to The Last Man on Earth, before wrapping up with the elegiac Don’t Delete The Kisses.

“This is a song about love,” Rowsell announces. “If you’ve got a crush, you should probably tell them.”

“My crush is on you, Ellie,” screams one fan, as dreamy synths usher in the anthemic chorus: “Me and you were meant to be in loooove!”

Then, a surprise. For the encore, the band launch into a cover of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, prompting a massive outbreak of pogo-ing in the moshpit.

And they wrap up with Giant Peach – a song about growing up in London and the band’s “love affair” with the “this dark and pretty town”.

It’s the perfect swansong for a hometown show that clearly means the world.

Rowsell thanks the entire crew, including the man who designed their giant, 40-foot glitterball (“he’s called ‘Mirrorball Paul’, I’m not making that up”); and tells the audience, “I’ll love you forever”.

It’s a fitting cap on a year that’s seen Wolf Alice score their second number one album and win best British group at the Brit Awards. In March, they were even hand-picked to play a Teenage Cancer Trust gig by The Cure’s Robert Smith, who called the quartet a band “at the top of their game”.

So what’s next? Well, they’ve got a US breakthrough in their sights.

Already capable of filling 2,000-capacity theatres in the States, they’ve played 284 American gigs in the last decade. But this September, they’ll take a major step up – jetting off to support Olivia Rodrigo on the first 18 arena dates of her world tour.

As Rowsell noted at the start of this homecoming concert: “The time is now.”

It couldn’t happen to a better band.

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