Show review: Chelsea Wolfe at Aragon Ballroom, 5/5/14

By Sarah Rosenfeld

Chelsea Wolfe // via chelseawolfe.net

Gothic-folk L.A. singer-songwriter Chelsea Wolfe brought her ghostly harmonics and haunting vocals to the Aragon Ballroom on Monday night opening for heavy rock hitters Queens of the Stone Age.  The Monday show was added after this Friday's show sold out almost immediately after going on sale.  Playing to a mostly packed room, Chelsea Wolfe came out on stage to Feral Love (see video below), a song from her newest album Pain is Beauty and also used in one of HBO's Game of Thrones season 4 trailers.  In a nice little nod to the city, she wore a lovely billowy black dress by Chicago designer Hogan McLaughlin.  Mostly playing songs from her latest album, Chelsea and her band warmed up the mostly there-to-see-QOTSA crowd with her ethereal sounds, as she switched back and forth between playing guitar and just singing.  The three guys in her band were a high energy yin to her slow, swaying yang as they brought to life the dark moods created by her songs with droning drums and sludgy distortion on the guitars.  Although it was a short set at just under 30 minutes and Chelsea apologized to the crowd at the end for some "technical difficulties," it sounded as though she made a few new fans in the audience.  Considering that this show was at the Aragon, the sound was actually really good.

Catch her again at the Aragon tomorrow 5/9 for the second sold out show with QOTSA.  Chelsea Wolfe will also be back in Chicago on May 24th at The Vic to play an acoustic set with strings, in what is sure to be a beautiful and unique show opening for the Eels.  So if you didn't manage to get tickets for tomorrow's sold out show, you can still catch her later in the month!