Chelsea Wolfe at The Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis (09/22/13)
Tour Dates
09/26/13 Caldwell, ID The Venue
09/27/13 Seattle, WA Barboza
09/28/13 Portland, OR Doug Fir Lounge
09/30/13 San Francisco, CA Great American
10/12/13 Prague, Czech Republic Matrix
10/13/13 Linz, Austria Posthof
10/14/13 Bologna, Italy Locomotiv Club
10/15/13 Zurich, Switzerland Rote Fabrik
10/16/13 Fribourg, Switzerland Fri-Son
10/18/13 Barcelona, Spain La [2] de Apolo
10/19/13 Madrid, Spain Shoko
10/21/13 Bilbao, Spain Kafe Antzokia
10/23/13 Paris, France Le Divan du Monde
10/24/13 Brighton, UK The Haunt
10/25/13 Manchester, UK Gorilla
10/26/13 Glasgow, UK SWG3
10/27/13 Dublin, Ireland Button Factory
10/29/13 London, UK Electric Ballroom
10/30/13 Ghent, Belgium Vooruit
10/31/13 Karlsruhe, Germany Jubez
11/01/13 Utrecht, Netherlands Tivoli De Helling
11/02/13 Cologne, Germany Bürgerhaus Stollwerck
11/03/13 Hamburg, Germany Logo
11/06/13 Helsinki, Finland Tavastia – Klubi
11/07/13 Oslo, Norway BLA
11/08/13 Goteborg, Sweden Truckstop Alaska
11/09/13 Copenhagen, Denmark KB 18
11/10/13 Berlin, Germany Columbiaclub
11/16/13 Los Angeles, CA Royce Hall Auditorium
In keeping with suspense and all things intense, her show started out with a fog machine piping smoke onto an empty stage, all while orchestral music played awaiting her arrival. Her backing band took the sparsely set-up stage and added little bits of musical flair on top of the orchestral music. Chelsea Wolfe eventually emerged, clad in a white flowing cape, and began with the first track off Pain is Beauty, titled “Feral Love”. With its creepy and foreboding tone, it was the perfect beginning to a magnificent evening. Drums built up slowly to eventually start the next song, also consequently the second track off Pain is Beauty, “We Hit a Wall”. Chelsea picked up her guitar for the first time of the night and began straight away with the repetitive but alluring guitar lick accompanying the melancholy song throughout. The song maintained its intensity and started off the track “Mer” right, with Wolfe gracefully playing guitar while singing. The keyboardist certainly added quite a bit of depth to the song with his parts, as well.
Some of my other favorites from the night included “Tracks/Tall Bodies” (from 2011’s Apokalypsis), “House of Metal”, “Demons” and “Sick”. Wolfe maintained the audience’s attention for the duration of the night and even carried a zen-like stage presence, despite the melancholy every one of her songs seem to ooze. Other than a “thank you” here or there in between songs, Wolfe didn’t bother with talking too much, as she knew what the show goers were there for. She did thank everyone for supporting her new album Pain is Beauty and played a set mostly comprised of songs from the album.
She played two from Apokalypsis, “Demons” and “Pale on Pale”, before her backing band left the stage after a raucous ending to the latter, and left Wolfe on stage along to perform an acoustic track. The ending track to Pain is Beauty, “Lone” was performed to complete silence from the crowd. Everyone was seemingly spellbound by the beauty of the song and her angelic voice; a perfect contrast to the heavier sounds of the evening. At the song’s end, she left the stage and ended her set. However, with prodding from the crowd for just a little bit more, the entire band came back on stage and ended with a cover song, British punk band Rudimentary Peni’s “Echo”. Sounding nothing like the original, yet marking it with her familiar doom-y brand of style, it was a great ending to the evening.
Catch Chelsea Wolfe on the rest of her tour on the west coast of the United States and then Europe this fall.
