It’s not often an artist like Remi Wolf comes around — someone with a refreshing pizzazz and the know-how to wrangle all that energy into songs that make you feel great. To have such an artist return to the concert space she grew up with — that’s an even bigger treat. The 28-year-old glitzed and glammed her way into people’s hearts with her hometown show at Frost Amphitheater on Oct. 18.
Before the true star of the show made her appearance, her band members motioned for applause. Then, at the sound of a cheering crowd, Wolf bounced out, a bundle of color, chutzpah and charisma. Curly hair flying, she sashayed her way across the stage, decked out in a green baseball cap, printed flower T-shirt and baggy green cargo pants held up by a leather belt with an impressive, eye-catching buckle.
Starting with “Cherries and Cream” and the finger-snapping “Cinderella,” she created a fun-loving and easygoing ambiance. During the jump-inducing “Pitiful,” Wolf kicked her legs up on the beat of every chorus; her perky pop style pulsed with each kick, echoed by the backing band of guitar, keys, bass and drums. In response, fans hopped up and down, feeling the singer’s versatile timbre ripple throughout the amphitheater as her voice popped and fizzed like sparkling cold lemonade, sweet and sour with a little crunch — and even spice at times.
Acknowledging the buzz in the space, Wolf grabbed her microphone to note her familiarity with Frost from her days as a student in Palo Alto. This being the last night of her tour’s U.S. leg, she screamed, “We’re going to have the most glorious … night of our lives!”
Laid-back indie singer slimdan from Los Angeles opened for Wolf, warming up the crowd with quirky lyrics and sunny melodies. Performing with a small backing band of guitar, keyboard, trumpet and drums, slimdan’s set ranged from groovy selections from his own album “Second Dinner” to a cover of Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated.”
Color was the theme of the show: Kaleidoscopic displays flashed lights in all colors of the rainbow, blazing the artist in the glow of a fireball. Wolf’s narrative abilities shone through as she recounted her process of creating the “Big Ideas” album, calling it a “journal of all my drug use, sex(capades), everything I ate, everything I felt” during the tour for her previous album, “Juno.”
Following a cover of Tom Cochrane’s version of Rascal Flatts’ “Life is a Highway” — “Cars” is her favorite movie — Wolf improvised a song from three words selected from the crowd. After receiving “mommy” and “scissor,” Wolf said, “Okay, there’s a theme.” After getting the last word as “bonky,” she exclaimed, “Bonky?! What the hell! I’m gonna do all three.” In no time, she turned the heat back up with the spontaneous and racy “Bonky Scissor Mommy.”
Slowing down with the sweeter “Motorcycle,” Wolf shared some internal thoughts with the audience, describing the two sides of her identity where one wants “to have a partner and … pump out a little baby and make pasta and pick oranges from my backyard” while the other wants to be wild and free, to put it mildly. The latter was clearly the one that was “f—ing winning!” she shouted.
The dynamic “Toro” emphasized the contrast between the two sides of the artist’s identity, picking up the pace where “Motorcycle” left off. Wrapping up with funkadelic “Disco Man” and ear-worm closer “Soup” (a great choice, in my opinion), Wolf returned for a quick but punchy encore with a pick for her longtime fans, “Photo ID.”
With all these “Big Ideas” she left on the floor of Frost, Wolf proved herself a Californian gal at heart, a colorful, always-keeps-you-guessing spirit with a flair for the playfully rambunctious.
Editor’s Note: This article is a review and includes subjective thoughts, opinions and critiques.
