Chelsea Wolfe
The Fillmore, San Francisco
March 29, 2024
Photos by Raymond Ahner
Throughout her musical career, Chelsea Wolfe has released new material at a fairly frequent pace. Fans of hers usually only had to wait a couple of years to hear any new music that she was ready to put out. But lo and behold, it had been almost five years since her last album, 2019’s Birth Of Violence, when Chelsea announced a new album and tour in October of last year. Titled She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She, one of the last dates in support of the album was to be at The Fillmore in San Francisco.
Once the lights went down at The Fillmore, Chelsea’s band of collaborators came onstage to a sparse piano intro played over the PA. Jess Gowrie sat behind the drums, Bryan Tulao strapped on a guitar around his body, and Ben Chisholm took his place behind multiple keyboards. Once the piano intro died down, the band began playing the introduction to “Whispers In The Echo Chamber,” the opening song on Wolfe’s new album, as she came onstage to a rapturous applause. The song wasn’t just a perfect opener in terms of its placement in the setlist, but also as a taster for what was to come. Combining the trademark heaviness that fans of previous albums like Abyss or Hiss Spun might be expecting with the industrial and trip-hop influences that are more prominent on the rest of the album, it let the audience know what they were in for.
The first section of the set was loaded with material from She Reaches Out To…, with “Everything Turns Blue” coming next, a song that seems to be becoming a fan favorite. One of the highlights for me was the following “House Of Self-Undoing.” Easily the fastest song on her latest album, Jess Gowrie was dominating the drum kit during the song, the band’s use of dynamics and stop-and-start instrumentation creating a sense of unease that would break every time Gowrie would begin tearing through the drums. The whole thing only truly slowed down and opened up towards the end as Chelsea sang, “Never wanted to stop, reached right into the mouth of the monster.”
Something has to be said about how perfect Wolfe’s voice sounds live. Listening to any of her albums, there could be a level of skepticism that someone could naturally sound that good while singing over some of the harsh and intense instrumentation that dominates most of her work. But live her voice pierced the music that was being played around her and became the anchor point of so much of the songs in her setlist, soaring out and over the audience.
The next part of the set saw highlights of older material, with “16 Psyche” beginning the section dedicated to her back catalogue. One of the heaviest songs in her repertoire, it still managed to fit in perfectly following the newer “Tunnel Lights.” After playing “The Culling,” also from Hiss Spun, the audience lost their minds as the opening keyboard riff of “Feral Love” rang through the venue. Chelsea’s live band added an intensity to the song that’s missing on the original version, as well as the following song, “House Of Metal,” both from Pain Is Beauty. The segment of the set was closed with “Survive,” one of my favorite songs by Wolfe. The lone number from Abyss that was performed, it felt like a truly profound experience seeing Chelsea perform it. It was one of the highlights of the evening for me.
The bulk of the rest of Chelsea’s set brought the focus back to her new album. The trip-hop influences came to the forefront on songs like “Eyes Like Nightshade.” Arguably the most experimental song on She Reaches Out…, Ben Chisholm’s electronic manipulations and keyboard-playing enhanced the song greatly and made it one of the highlights of the set.
“This is an old song that I’m playing for the first time on this tour,” Wolfe said towards the end of the set. The song was “They’ll Clap When You’re Gone” from her 2013 album Pain Is Beauty. The song was the beginning the final stretch of the show, which became more and more minimal as it went on. “Flatlands” felt especially powerful with Chelsea pleading, “I want flatlands, I want simplicity, I need your arms wrapped hard around me.” Finally it was just her onstage with her acoustic guitar, the rest of the band taking their leave. The final song of the night was a stripped-down version of “The Liminal” off of her latest album, a song that sounds beautiful stripped down to its bare essentials. The final words that Chelsea Wolfe sang onstage before the show came to a close were, “I’m the future, I’m the former, I nurtured me, I came back stronger, I’m in your dreams, I’m in your song, now everybody sings along.” And we did. To every word.
Opening the show was instrumental doom metal band Divide And Dissolve. A duo formed by guitarist/saxophonist Takiaya Reed, their music is pummeling and intense. However, despite the fact that the Takiaya and her drummer were in perfect sync with each other, I personally found there to be little variation between songs. At one point towards the end of their set Takiaya said that there were two more, but what followed felt like one long song to me. The rest of the crowd seemed incredibly into it, so I may be the lone naysayer here.
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