Despite both vocalists having ethereal tones, Luna Li and Wolf Alice provided a soothing and wild performance respectfully.
Luna Li walked onto the stage wearing a ball cap concealing most of her face. The stage was flooded entirely with red lighting. She took some time to warm up to the audience during her first two songs. She stood in front of the mic strumming her guitar. The second song she didn’t need the guitar and moved into formulaic hand gestures, similar to Madonna’s Vogue dance, but much more fluid. By the third song, the ball cap came off and her show really began. She relaxed onto her knees and even crawled around the floor.
She sang, danced, strummed the guitar, and played the violin for the remainder of her set. When you walk into the venue, you might notice her branded butterfly attire at the merch table. She had a butterfly guitar as well that she enjoyed showing off to the audience.
It was a birthday set for Luna and the crowd sang happy birthday. She blew out a single candle on a cupcake from the band. She had a soft voice and was thrilled to play a birthday show. Her set was soothing like meditative lo-fi. She introduced the band on their way out before one final song — Cherry Pit. it was performed a little heavier with some quick riffs to back her gentle voice to end her 30 minute calming set, but get the crowd excited for Wolf Alice. In hindsight, It seemed everything she did was calculated.
Wolf Alice came out roaring onto the stage. Frantic shifts of light and darkness filled the stage. The first three songs were intense and riveting. If the silhouettes among flashing lights were too much, you may have enjoyed just closing your eyes for the first three songs. If you’re not familiar with them, listen to their opening 3 songs "Smile", "You're a Germ", and "Formidable Cool".
Ellie was flanked on stage by Theo Ellis and Joff Oddie but all of them flailed and danced and thrashed around with their guitars.
By their 4th song, "Delicious Things", Oddie switched out to an acoustic guitar and Ellie Rowsell gave us delicate high notes. The lights turned red as the mood shifted. Between songs they hardly shared a word with the audience, but showed admiration for each other on stage, with one exception …
Right before they performed "Bros", Theo announced that they have been here several times before and they wanted to dedicate the next song for someone in the balcony, Randy Malloy, owner of Columbus' 92.9 alternative station. “Thank you very much for being a good friend to us. This song is for you. Let’s have a fucking good time!”
The audience was a mix of ages. They remained relatively calm without a crowd surfer all evening, watching, recording, and cheering along. Although it was a packed venue, the Newport is a smaller campus venue. In the UK Wolf Alice brings in much larger crowds. It is remarkable that they come to the Newport to perform for their fans.
