Live Report: Wolf Alice turn up the glamour with exquisite 3Arena show

Earlier this year, Wolf Alice surprised Ireland with three secret shows in Kilkenny’s Set Theatre, Cork’s Cyprus Avenue and Limerick’s Dolan’s Warehouse – an uncharacteristically intimate yet gorgeously sweaty run of shows that Hot Press had the pleasure to attend, and which preceded the band’s largest ever tour. On their grandiose closing night in 3Arena, the London rockers proved their ability to command any sized venue.

Although Storm Bram threatened to seriously derail the show - both openers Bria and Sunflower Bean were held back by cancelled ferry crossings, and Wolf Alice’s gear arrived to the venue late – it quickly became apparent that technical issues would not be enough to stop the band from delivering a superb closing performance to their delighted Dublin audience.

Wolf Alice at 3Arena on December 10th, 2025. Copyright Peter O'Hanlon/ hotpress.com

From the stage’s backdrop to Joel Amey’s glittery drums and singer Ellie Roswell’s dark blue eyeshadow, it felt like the entire venue was shimmering as the band jumped into the luscious sounds of the piano ballad ‘Thorns’, wrapping the room in languorous and warm soundscapes.

Wolf Alice at 3Arena on December 10th, 2025. Copyright Peter O'Hanlon/ hotpress.com

Following with the high-energy maximalism of ‘Bloom Baby Bloom’, Wolf Alice immediately demonstrated the scale of their range without losing a touch of their charm, as the wind machine transformed Roswell into an old Hollywood star.

Throughout their setlist, the band also leaned into their heavier sounds, starting with the powerful ‘Formidable Cool’, punctuated by the wild intensity of guitarist Joff Oddie’s riffs, Roswell’s charisma on full display as her shadow projected onto the sliver backdrop.

Wolf Alice at 3Arena on December 10th, 2025. Copyright Peter O'Hanlon/ hotpress.com

During the glistening ‘Delicious Things’, the singer transfixed her audience as she stood alone on her rotating platform, pushing the glamour up to a thousand. More than her visual impact, though, Roswell marked the spirits with her unwaveringly flawless vocal performances, effortlessly belting out the stirring melodies of ‘Just Two Girls’ or ‘Safe in the World’, but also the harsh chorus of ‘You’re A Germ’.

Her talents were only highlighted by the occasional addition of beautifully layered harmonies from the rest of the band, especially notable on the gentle and moving ‘Safe From Heartbreak (If You Never Fall In Love)’, which the four members kicked off while standing together in the centre stage, before singing the tune’s bridge acapella and in unison, adding a shiver-inducing, silky quality to the delicate ballad.

Wolf Alice at 3Arena on December 10th, 2025. Copyright Peter O'Hanlon/ hotpress.com

While the frontwoman carried a significant amount of the set’s emotional intensity, it is through the addition of dreamy, reverbed instrumentals, complete with glistening guitar riffs and slow building rhythmic sections on the beautifully intense ‘Bros’.

Perhaps most memorably, the band demonstrated the extent of their sonic range with the bone rattling ‘Yuk Foo’, for which Roswell switched her mic for a megaphone, immediately followed by a riotous rendition of fan favorite ‘Play The Greatest Hits’, punctuated by a healthy amount of crawling, screaming and head-banging from the singer.

Wolf Alice at 3Arena on December 10th, 2025. Copyright Peter O'Hanlon/ hotpress.com

Carrying the grittiness and wild energy to set closers ‘Giant Peach’ and ‘Smile’, Wolf Alice proved once more that they could, truly, do it all, from poignant ballads to ear-bursting rock numbers, the room exploding in an array of light and noise as the musicians jumped all over the stage, at this point completely covered in sweat and visibly happy to be.

While the show’s encore slowed down on the heaviness, renditions of the gripping tracks ‘The Last Man on Earth’ and ‘Don’t Delete The Kisses’ were about as powerful as they were heart-wrenching, both atmospheric and magnificently intense, gloriously closing Wolf Alice’s triumphant run of 2025 shows.