Nearly three years on from her return to our shores, following an extended absence prior to that as a result of the pandemic fallout, Chelsea Wolfe has again graced us with her presence.
Last night her Australian tour concluded in Adelaide at The Gov (27 May).On support duties, and subbing for the originally announced Uboa, is Aphir, the performing identity of engineer producer Becki Whitton – playing songs from albums 'Pomegranate Tree' and 'Republic Of Paradise' as well as airing material from the forthcoming 'Avarena'.
Aphir's performance could be summarised as effected vocals on helium over abrasive beats. At times her crunchy beats are reminiscent of Bjork's early solo work while vocally Grimes comes to mind.
It is an appropriate support, serving somewhat as a primer for Chelsea Wolfe's diversions into glitched electronica that are to follow without being too much of a contrast and alienating the audience.
The title track of David Bowie's 'Blackstar' leads into a pre-recorded intro as Chelsea and her band assemble onstage and commence with 2024 'She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She' album opener 'Whispers In The Echo Chamber'. It immediately demonstrates the more electronic and industrial style of Chelsea's most recent album.
On vocals alone at this stage, Chelsea is ably abetted by long-term collaborator and dynamic visual drawcard Ben Chisholm dividing time between electronics and bass often in the same song, the band rounded out by stable recruits Jess Gowrie on drums and Bryan Tulao on guitar.
This early portion of the set is a play-through of the first part of the album with 'Everything Turns Blue' a primal burst of sheer power while 'Tunnel Lights' includes Chelsea quoting from the Cranberries' 'Zombie' and alternates between the styles of jazz and hardcore in a single song.
There is barely a moment of letdown between the songs, the tension heightened by strobing lights in sync with Jess pummelling the kit while Ben wrestles his bass. Chelsea confidently paces the stage slowly, her vocals floating above the cacophony of the band's wall of noise.
With this live introduction to her latest album complete, Chelsea acknowledges the audience for the first time asking: "How are you all doing tonight?" before taking up the guitar and contributing to the grounding instrumentation for the first time this evening by playing '16 Psyche'.
The constant flow of the set is only stopped momentarily before the band are about to start 'The Culling', when there is an issue with Ben’s bass strap. He urges the rest of the band to start, but when it comes time for him to play and the strap hasn't been prepared in time, the song is brought to a halt and Chelsea does some 'crowd work' ("What day is it today? A Tuesday? Thanks for coming out on a Tuesday.") before the band start up again managing to recapture the momentum.
Following these back catalogue selections from 'Hiss Spun', Chelsea continues with a couple of songs from 'Abyss'. On 'Dragged Out', Ben wields his bass like an instrument of destruction, dramatically pounding his fist on the fretboard, somewhat abusing the instrument in an effort to get everything out of it that he can.
The band return to the second portion of their near play-through of 'She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She', which includes a contrasting stylistic change with the relatively quieter piano ballad torch song 'Place In The Sun'.
This is followed by 'Dusk' sounding like a country song through a distorted prism of hardcore, measured but then exploding in the latter stages, taking off like a chainsaw and successfully leading back into a selection of Chelsea's more muscular, forceful material.
During 'Feral Love', Ben plays up the electronics coaxing the sound of internet dial up or a fax machine out of his gear set up while Chelsea howls into the mic. As the set comes to a close there is a pairing of 'The Liminal', played mostly acoustically, Ben's accompanying electronics making it sound as though it's being played near a crackling fire.
To close the main body of the set Chelsea plays 'Flatlands' solo after the band leave the stage before her. Returning to encore, Chelsea unfairly overstates: "This is the most chaotic show ever," preceding final performances representative of past releases – 'Carrion Flowers' played before the earliest song of the evening 'Pale On Pale'.
It's not a long set, but it is definitely a concentrated one and with the audience wanting more at the end, the indication was that it was a success. Musically, Chelsea continues to evolve and in a gradual way such that the audience are grateful to be along for the journey wherever it may take them.
