Just a couple of weeks since releasing latest album, The Dark, Chelsea Wolfe has taken to the United States for a round of shows in celebration. No matter what’s been in store for her musically, Chelsea’s fanbase manifest at every opportunity; this time at San Francisco’s Curran Theatre in the heart of the city for the first night. The intimate seats packed in with audience members clad in blacks, grays, and whites. All seemingly understood the assignment.
Gilded archways peeled open to a large stage and the crowd who listened intently to the opener, Jonathan Hultén, as backtracks of birds chirping set the scene. Acoustic guitar thrummed to the pace of a beating heart as vocals harmonized the perfect melodies to soothe it.
Chelsea Wolfe seemed to appear out of thin air from the veiled curtains surrounding the stage. Lights bathed blues and yellows spotlighted her face as fog rolled in. Behind her, an organza veil danced around an umbrella of reflecting light that bounced each spotlight in the room from center stage which shone like the moon.
The audience was seemingly pulled into a trance from that moment forward. Immediate calm swelled through the building, every soul stilled by the scape laid before them as fog danced through the artfully timed lights. A couple of tracks were played on the acoustic guitar from the new album before things grew heavier, deeper, and darker.
See the full setlist below:
- The Dark
- Iron Moon
- Whispers in the Echo Chamber
- Turn the Key (Live debut)
- The Liminal
- Tunnel Lights
- Dusk
- Vex
- Seethe
- Humours
- Swallower (Live debut)
- Feral Love
- Pale on Pale
- Wandering (Live debut)
- Flatlands
- Cold
- Halo (Live debut)
- Death Is Not the End
- 16 Psyche
The performance was equally as chilling as it were calming; and within it we all felt the gravity of each word she sang beneath each sweet note and distorted guitar riff. After seemingly ending the night with “16 Psyche,” the house music played, lights flickered on, but the audience members remained, all standing, longing for more. Not ones typically for an encore, Chelsea and the band rejoined the stage and played what was dubbed by her as the “old little number”: “The Culling.” This true finale seemed to soothe the audience for just awhile longer, until the next show or new release to come. Until then, the hunger for more from Chelsea Wolfe will keep growing.
Get your tickets to the remaining dates of Chelsea Wolfe’s “The Dark” tour here, and stream the new album below: