Chelsea Wolfe – The Powerstation: May 30, 2025 (13th Floor Concert Review)
With May coming to a close, we turn our attention to The Powerstation, where Chelsea Wolfe held court last night. The 13th Floor’s Simon Coffey and Brenna Jo Gotje file these words and images.
American singer-songwriter-musician Chelsea Wolfe, early in the 21st Century seen as one of the resurrectors of dark wave, influenced by predecessor musicians from Burzam, Black Sabbath, Hank Williams, SPK, Nick Cave, Rudimentary Peni, Neurosis to Fleetwood Mac (as a child) Consequently she defies categorization as an artist, as a situationist, she has found her own, ever-evolving way of travelling with an ethos of wickery.
Last time in Aotearoa her Galatos show ended up at The Powerstation after Covid-delays, hyped by being one of the first sizeable international shows post the covid responses, as well as the kind on the pocket ticket price. Chelsea Wolfe wowed, and my FOMO was realised. Not this time. Especially on the back of her captivating 2024 album, She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She, with its electronica and organic industrial undertow, adding sumptuous to her existing gothic dark metal melodramatics.
It’s a sea of black, inhabited by youth and the experienced, the room is comfortably full, and HEALTH and CONVERGE t-shirts smatter throughout. Though, a shaft of colour sparks, a bright orange t-shirt, one featuring local alt-metal band Cold Ceiling (a favourite of mine)
Aphir
Melbourne based musician (and music producer) Becki Whitton aka Aphir, who it seems, stepped in after the original tour opener fell back. Alone on stage, with magical boxes and a synth drum, since 2013 Aphir has been part of the growing electronic music wave. Bubbly in personality, she was effervescent between songs, songs about heartbreak, and the bad parts of life.
Musically she fits comfortably between popism, ambient and elements of dark electronica, using multiple tools, and moving ever-so efficiently at live mixing, with occasional breakouts of energy. Aphir delivered an ethereal dance-oriented composition in the main, though her choral voice was also given preponderance occasionally.
Her first time in Aotearoa, and gracious for chance, Aphir finished on a heavily beaten neo-industrial song, flawed due to technological failure (we are given advance warning) she endeared herself to many in the room, with her sense of humility and honesty.
Chelsea Wolfe
The staging of instruments onstage infers theatre, opera, with drums askew, guitar set back and synth/bass placed so that they form a semi-circle, as tools of a maestro.
And theatre is delivered as dulcet hymns waifs and darkness is interrupted as (the) Wolfe and band took their places and the haunting minimalism of Whispers in the Echo Chamber invited attention (and cheers)
The Opening Act: The dark complexity of Whispers in the Echo Chamber, with Wolfe’s haunting vocals, irreducible electronic rhythms and darkened guitar harked much of what would dominate tonight, stage set, appetites whetted, senses conscious. Chelsea Wolfe in her black ankle length apparel (I wonder if it was a Jenni Hensler creation), white heeled boots and draped hair, looked as iconic as Marianne Faithfull ever did. Surrounded by carefully crafted lighting, shafts of red and blue and occasional white. Teasing and triumphing her presence onstage, but not forgetting her imperative fellow contributors around her.
Having been in Aotearoa only three years ago, the show featured heavily from She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She. A triumphant trio follows: Everything Turns Blue, Tunnel Lights and House of Self‐Undoing. Together they form the first act showcasing the album’s complexity. Trip-hop beats, live drumming, harkening guitar and ephemeral synth. But all the way, Chelsea Wolfe’s rich and emotional vocal harmonies guide the experience, onstage she leads with dark beckonings.
Act Two; delves into past endeavors, 16 Psyche leads two each from Abyss (2015) & Hiss Spun (2017), a much darker experience; earthy tempos, triggering emo(tional) responses, Bryan Tulao builds menacing guitar-led waves of sounds, and there are those gothic reposes. Ben Chisholm (synths/bass) shares his finessed bass arts with us, grounding the songs. Act Three: Unseen, with its Portishead reminiscent trip-hop-like beats (drummer Jess Gowrie is seamless) returns the audience to the present, under Wolfe’s curation. Eyes Like Nightshade offers, once again the complex layers found on She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She, creating space, pauses, and transitions effortlessly. A beauty floats, as Wolfe sings with mercifulness and clements, a theme maintained on Place In The Sun, but usurped on Dusk (a crowd pleaser for sure) Did I mention Chelsea was now on guitar too? The finality of Dusk is extreme but doesn’t hark the end, the ensuing final act of tonight’s opera.
Finale Act: Flatlands (from 2012’s Unknown Rooms: A Collection of Acoustic Songs) see Chelsea Wolfe on acoustic, with gentle accompaniment, she/they falter momentarily, and opportune conversation with the crowd. A rare moment. The restart was opportune indeed. Several more songs from the past follow, the finale was Pale On Pale from 2011’s Apokalypsis, a parting gift, aroha flowed from the crowd. They clapped until the performers, the actors, were gone from the stage.
Simon Coffey
Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Brenna Jo Gotje:
Chelsea Wolfe:
Aphir:
