Live Review + Gallery | Chelsea Wolfe @ Marble Factory, Bristol

Chelsea Wolfe | Mary Jane Dunphe

Marble Factory, Bristol

2nd November 2024

Photography by Kazuo Chaed (@lighterfluid)

Georgia Ferrari

Georgia is a writer from Melbourne, Australia currently on an (indefinite) gap year in Bristol. Georgia is a big fan of all things post-rock and punk-adjacent.

Chelsea Wolfe combined new tracks and reimaginings of older tracks for her performance at Bristol’s Marble Factory

Opener Mary Jane Dunphe set the stage with synth-pop and interpretive dance, contrasting brandishes of femininity and masculinity; robotic movement mixed with fluidity. Dunphe relishes in the power of vulnerability commanded by a meticulous control over one’s body’s movement. Dunphe’s desperate baritone voice over computerised drum and bass proudly displays what feels like a very private experience – a refreshingly subversive experience. The set ended with Mary spinning into a collapse.

Chelsea Wolfe’s performance at the Marble Factory was mainly comprised of songs from her most recent album, ‘She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She’, which wraps her gothic sound into an industrial-infused electronica package; a dark trip-hop – appropriate for a Bristol crowd.

Wolfe modernised her older music, tying her new sound into older songs like ‘Flatlands’ and ‘16 Psyche’ – with synth replacing the stringed instruments in ‘Flatlands’, and the vocal notes of both songs shorter and punchier than the studio versions.

Wolfe’s lyrics have remained thematically consistent throughout her discography, with mentions of circularity, death and rebirth prominent throughout her discography. This circularity was visually present throughout the performance, with an iris-like ring of light morphing, shrinking, and expanding; with beams of light shooting outwards from a point of singularity.

Keep an eye out for Wolfe’s upcoming album releasing on November 15th – ‘Unbound’ – if you’re a fan of her older gothic-folk sound, as it includes her consistently dark-romantic lyricism over acoustic/piano versions of songs from her most recent album.