Review: Joshua Hobbins
Photography: Nate Rose

Opening the evening was Melbourne producer and vocalist Aphir, whose ambient electronica and crystalline vocal textures cast a haunting mood across the room. The set drifted between softness and confrontation, with ethereal new track Messengers showcasing reverb-drenched melodies fractured by tribal, glitch-infused beats.

Moratorium, a piece on heartbreak, was delivered with deadpan humour — Aphir joking about the way breakups ruin your algorithm — but the performance was anything but flippant. Vulnerability radiated through every line, her fragile voice juxtaposed against heavy, often jarring electronic rhythms. With Pomegranate Tree, Aphir paid tribute to Uboa, who was originally billed but unable to join the tour. Aphir’s short but impressive set was a fitting bridge — spectral, intimate, and quietly devastating — setting the stage for Wolfe’s descent.

Bathed in purple light and wrapped in a low, reverberating bass hum, the crowd at The Tivoli fell silent. As a delicate piano refrain echoed through the room, Chelsea Wolfe emerged like an apparition — gliding toward centre stage to begin what would become a spellbinding sermon in shadow, sorrow, and sheer sonic power.

Opening with Whispers in the Echo Chamber, Wolfe led the audience into a world of slow-burning doom, industrial undercurrents and spectral tension. Even in her quietest moments, her whispers carried weight, each one imbued with intent. The band — tight, balanced, and impossibly heavy — elevated the material far beyond studio replication, pairing Jess Gowrie’s live drums and Bryan Tulao’s walls of guitar with Ben Chisolm’s intricately layered keys, bass and samples.

Everything Turns Blue showcased the seamless mix, with a perfect blend of Chelsea’s voice with the band’s crushing undertow. Tunnel Lights showcased Wolfe’s ability to ride massive sonic waves with a Beth Gibbons-like restraint, her vocals a balm against the chaos.

House of Self-Undoing brought a shift — faster, more confrontational. Wolfe’s presence was magnetic, commanding without spectacle as she pleaded, “Can you forgive me now?”

The crowd erupted for 16 Psyche, with Wolfe picking up the guitar for the first time in the set. Tulao’s lead guitar work was sublime all night, and he tore through a soaring solo before everything came crashing back into the song’s opening riff. The dynamic range of Wolfe’s voice — from whisper to falsetto to full-throated wail — reminded us all of her mastery.

From the eerie The Culling and the thunderous Dragged Out (with Chisolm dialing in a bass tone that would make Brian Cook proud), to the crystal-clutching mysticism of Unseen World, Wolfe moved between doom, noise, and delicate gothic balladry with ease. Survive started with a lone, hypnotic rhythm — Wolfe solo — before building into a massive crescendo. Eyes Like Nightshade offered a cacophonous wall of Aphex Twin-style chaos before the lush melancholia of my set highlight Place in the Sun, the goth-pop perfection of Dusk, and the electro-goth brilliance of Feral Love.

Her acoustic renditions of Flatlands and The Liminal were mesmerising — waves of Ebow swells, synth bass, and unearthly vocals holding the crowd in hushed reverence. When she whispered the final lines of The Liminal, not a sound broke the stillness. It was haunting, fragile, and beautiful.

The encore crushed — Carrion Flowers pulsed with trance-like rhythm and devastating low-end, before Pale on Pale closed the night in a wash of droning doom.

As the final notes dissolved into the darkened rafters of The Tivoli, the audience stood suspended — not just in awe, but in something deeper. Chelsea Wolfe doesn’t simply perform songs; she invokes them, conjuring a liminal space where grief, beauty, and defiance all coexist. Supported by a band that balances crushing weight with spectral subtlety, and preceded by Aphir’s emotionally charged set, the night was less a concert and more a séance — a communion with the unspoken. In an age of spectacle, Wolfe reminds us of the power of restraint, of mood, of presence. Doomily brilliant.

Remaining dates:

May 27 – Adelaide – The Gov
May 29 – Wellington – Meow Nui
May 30 – Auckland – Powerstation

Tickets on sale from birdsrobe.com & chelseawolfe.com