It is never a great sign when a local authority is forced to comment on a music festival. The opening night of the In The Park series of shows at Newcastle's Exhibition Park forced such a reaction from the city council, after claims of overcrowding to see headliner Lewis Capaldi perform, on a day of sweltering heat. Nothing amiss was found according to the council, and by this night, the final one in the series of shows, there were thankfully no issues to cause concern.
Instead the sunshine was accompanied by a light breeze to create an atmosphere more suitable for picnics than rock music, and even as final support act Keo performed there were folk sprawled out on the grass or resting against trees in the shade. Whether Keo did enough to draw attention is debatable - the quartet play grungy Britpop with a desire to swagger, but it wasn't until the sharp snarl of closer "Black Dress" did they actually rise above their influences.
Wolf Alice have no difficulty there, partly as they now draw upon such a varied palette. The quartet arrived at 8pm on the dot, glitter ball hoisted above them and a backdrop of silver fluttering whenever the wind picked up. In some ways this was a case of "after the Lord Mayor's show" for the group, coming a week after playing to about 45,000 people at a giant homecoming gig in London. Perhaps that's why the band's chat was mostly restrained, save for singer Ellie Rowsell saying she'd had a great night in the Toon the previous day, and bassist Theo Ellis throwing out a dedication to Newcastle and England defender Dan Burn - a shout-out that no band visiting the area seems able to resist.
However, if the chat was moderate, the music was expansive. Much like Burn's stout work keeping Mexico out at the World Cup, Wolf Alice are robust, with a set well honed from months of taking last year's The Clearing album on the road. Arguably their greatest success is fusing four fairly disperse albums into a cohesive set that flows well, meaning it can flip from the melodic pop lilt of "Leaning Against The Wall" to moshpit favourite "Bros" with ease, or, in one exhilarating case, from chugging glam rock with "Bread Butter Tea Sugar" right into a screaming, vivacious "Yuk Foo" in a way that avoids giving the audience whiplash.
Rowsell has a considerable part in this. She has progressed as a frontwoman tremendously over the years, and here she was prowling one moment, posing the next. She bellowed into a megaphone, clutched a flying-v guitar above her head as if she'd just lifted the sword of Excalibur, and generally looked like she was having a blast. The rest of the band, aided by an extra musician with keyboardist/guitarist Ryan Malcolm, are not exactly laid back either, guitarist Joff Oddie lobbing his guitar to the heavens and Joel Amey rock solid on drums and gleeful on backing vocals.
The Clearing itself might have been the band's most mellow record yet, stamped through with 1970s vibes and a clear love for the likes of Fleetwood Mac. Yet those songs are built for big crowds, which was just as well as the first half was dominated by material from it. The wide-screen pop panorama of "Passenger Seat" proved perfect for a dance in the sun, and the fragile acoustic-led "Gospel Oak" just about brought tenderness to the evening, albeit while having to overcome the perils of a big outdoor gig - namely that any quiet moment will be interrupted by audience chatter over where the nearest loo is. A similar flaw popped up during the ethereal "The Last Man On Earth", when it gained a surprise accompaniment of a car alarm going off from nearby.
Perhaps it was for the best that the latter portion of the gig started reeling off the thrashy, angry numbers with more frequency. This also let Ellis, never a shy and retiring character, a chance to really bounce and pogo about the place, though it was a harder sell on some of the crowd, who preferred to simply sway over anything else. Despite that, "Play the Greatest Hits" fizzed with energy, and "Smile" sounded absolutely gigantic, all fuzz and bass. If "Don't Delete the Kisses" was a dreamy, synth-driven way to end the main set then the encore tried to return us to a clammy club, including a brief stab at "Smells Like Teen Spirit", the bursts of fiery noise that make up 'You're a Germ", and a closing indie dancefloor gem in "Giant Peach".
The last image though, was not of studied cool or angry outrage, but of "Three Lions" coming on over the PA and the band dancing around the stage while waving a flag with their image on it. As a Scot, having to hear Baddiel and Skinner yet again would normally test the patience, but who could deny the band such giddiness? Living their best life, and rightly so.
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