CARLY KNASZAK
Staff Writer
Wolf — a local band from Buffalo whose lead singer, Chelsea O’Donnell is a Fredonia alumna — made its return to the Fredonia area with its first show ever at EBC. The band performed Thursday, April 9, during EBC’s open mic night.
“We have been playing mostly around Buffalo, and we actually played at BJ’s a few weeks ago,” singer Chelsea O’Donnell said.
“BJ’s knows how to party,” drummer Bill O’Connor said. The band definitely stood out from the other bands that performed at open mic, especially after taking the stage after a beat boxer.
But as soon as Wolf was ready to play, the crowd was already cheering them on with a few fans cheering, “Chelsea!”
Wolf had more of a mellow punk vibe to them, but with certain songs, brought the loud drums and almost a groove sound with the bass and guitar.
“Being in this band is different from other bands I have been in because [with] some other bands I was in, it was just about how loud you can play the drums; but now I focus more on the melody,” O’Connor said.
The band played around a fourteen-song setlist. They also played all their songs from their new EP, “It’s Electric.”
“We enjoy playing the songs from the EP,” O’Donnell said. The EP was released on March 21; the band also had an album release party at Buffalo’s Mohawk Place.
Many bands do covers or like playing only certain songs, but Wolf likes to take the stage by storm and play all original pieces.
“We have tried doing a few covers, but even when I was playing solo, I have never been that comfortable doing covers. I feel like I cannot own up to the original,” O’Donnell said. “Covers are fun when the energy is right and when everyone knows the song. Then it makes it more of a community experience, I guess, when the audience and band sing together because it’s like ‘Oh cool, we all know the words to the song,’ but, other than that, I think we really like to do the originals.”
But O’Connor thought differently about doing covers in the band.
“I like doing covers because most of the songs we cover are from my childhood,” O’Connor said.
“We covered Nirvana’s ‘About A Girl’ at BJ’s, and that is one that everyone knew right away,” O’Donnell said.
O’Donnell had mentioned before that some of the musicians that have inspired her are Lemuria, Jimmy Eat World, Foo Fighters and Paramore.
“I love female voices and male voices. It’s all in the same vein. I love Hayley Williams of Paramore. I also love Courtney Love’s voice, and she does not have a good singing voice at all. But she rocks what she is doing,” O’Donnell said.
“I also really like Max Bemis of Say Anything. I love how he sings, but he is also talking at the same time, and he really emotes into his words on what he is trying to say. You can tell when he’s being sarcastic or when he’s been sincere. I really like that [about] music in general, when someone is truly expressing how they really feel through how they are singing. So when someone is singing kind of emotionless and just in a pretty tune, I can appreciate that, but I don’t really feel it.”
Wolf is booking shows for the summer and fall.
“We want to do a bit of an East Coast tour. That would be sweet. Going down to Philly, Baltimore and areas around there,” O’Connor said.
“We’re even trying to get a show in Nashville,” O’Donnell said.
Fans can purchase the band’s three EPs on Wolf’s Bandcamp page.