Concert Review - Chelsea Wolfe - Auckland - 30th May 2025

Presented By Birdsrobe & Valhalla Touring

Chelsea Wolfe Live in Auckland Photo Credit Megan Moss

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL CHELSEA WOLFE GALLERY BY MEGAN MOSS

Review By: Sarah Kidd

Artist/Band: Chelsea Wolfe Supported by APHIR

Venue/City: Powerstation, Auckland, New Zealand

Date of Event: Friday 30th May 2025

Last night Auckland’s Powerstation was transformed into a place of paganistic like worship as the ethereal Chelsea Wolfe descended from the darkness.

She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She released last year is her seventh album and sees Wolfe fully embrace that which lives in the shadows, a symbiotic relationship as such. Suffering from both anxiety and sleep paralysis throughout life, while simultaneously embracing witchcraft as part of their sense of self, Wolfe has the uncanny ability to communicate this through their music that feels both violent and cathartic.

Dressed in black, long sleeves brushing the backs of her hands, her pale white shoulders peeking out as tendrils of dark hair caressed her face, Wolfe graced the stage with a presence that made many catch their breath.

Taking centre stage and accompanied by fellow musicians Bryan Tulao on guitar, Ben Chisholm on bass/synths and Jess Gowrie on drums respectively in a half circle behind her, smoke curled lazily in the air as Wolfe began with ‘Whispers in the Echo,’ a song that seeps inside you as industrial undertones pulsate through the veins.

Followed closely by ‘Tunnel Lights’ and ‘House of Self-Undoing,’ the latter a song about the heartache inflicted by someone who constantly departs, and the turmoil created when trying to break free from such a cycle. For a different take on the song, the remix by Boy Harsher is highly recommended, Wolfe herself having spoken of how they love that the song was transformed into “something new.”

Stepping back into the past, fan favourite ’16 Psyche’ saw attendees almost writhe, as Wolfes haunting vocals filled the room as Tulao and Chisholm drove it from behind, their fuzzed out tones ravenous as Gowrie kept impeccable time.

The goddess herself was ensconced in the moment, refraining from conversation for the majority of the show – bar for a brief moment towards the end of the evening to restart a song. The atmosphere created not only by her music, but by the brilliant lighting, some of the absolute best seen at Powerstation, was hypnotic, time was lost as Wolfe and co moved through a set list that delivered more offerings from her latest album including ‘Unseen World’, ‘Eyes Like Nightshade’ and ‘Place in the Sun’ which saw instrumentation pulled back in order to let Wolfe’s positively haunting vocals fill the room, the fans transfixed.

Throughout the night Wolfe moved with an other-worldliness that few can encompass so naturally, even during points in the evening when she unleashed on guitar herself. Residing in a small mountain town in Northern California, amongst the trees is where she feels most comfortable, this relationship with the earth itself a part of what makes her music so powerful. At one point during the show a pendulum was seen spinning from her hand, a part of the ritual all was willingly partaking in, this was performance art, yet not, as it felt completely organic, a transference of energies.

Closing with ‘The Liminal,’ Wolfe’s New Zealand fans were not prepared to let the evening end quite yet, and it would seem neither was Wolfe, as once again she graced the stage to finish with ‘Carrion Flowers’ and ‘Pale on Pale’ from 2011’s Apokalypsis album.

Returning to the darkness from which she had stepped forth with her incantations, the exuberant applause of those in attendance followed at her heels.

The ritual was over, the night was calling, those in attendance now imbued with a little magic of their own.

SET LIST
Whispers in the Echo Chamber
Everything Turns Blue
Tunnel Lights
House of Self-Undoing
16 Psyche
The Culling
Dragged Out
Survive
Unseen World
Eyes Like Nightshade
Place in the Sun
Dusk
Feral Love
Flatlands
The Liminal
Carrion Flowers
Pale on Pale

Chelsea Wolfe NZ Tour 2025

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