REVIEW: Remi Wolf shakes the night away at Regency Ballroom

Remi Wolf

Remi Wolf performs at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco on Jan. 24, 2022. Onome Uyovbievbo/STAFF.

SAN FRANCISCO — Bay-Area-born Junior Olympics ski racer turned American Idol contestant and now TikTok-viral pop singer Remi Wolf took the stage on Monday night at The Regency Ballroom to continue to “[break] the rules of pop music.Wolf has released three EPs but most of the songs she played were from her debut studio album, Juno, released just last year.

Remi Wolf

Remi Wolf performs at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco on Jan. 24, 2022.

Wolf walked out on stage to a reel of her in various outfits on a kaleidoscope of colors playing on the big screen behind her and a sofa below to match. She was on brand, wearing a furry rainbow-colored hat, jean shorts and pink UGG boots. She opened her set with “Liquor Store,” the single from Juno.

Her quirky personality shined through in her performance, and she supplemented her singing by making various other noises and putting on different accents.



“Christmas did me in; I’m very out of shape,” she said after playing “Grumpy Old Man.” But it was difficult to tell, as she spent most of the time on stage spinning around, dancing, twerking and shimmying. At one point she seemed to lose her balance but caught herself in time.

Remi Wolf

Remi Wolf performs at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco on Jan. 24, 2022.

An amusing moment came when Remi Wolf sang a cover of Janice Joplin’s “Piece of My Heart,” feeling the need to explain to the crowd of Gen-Zers what the song was about. She moved on from that to “Hello Hello Hello,” from her second EP, I’m Allergic to Dogs!, before bringing out a fan to cool off and posing in front of it to cheers from the crowd. She played a new version of “Quiet on Set,” switching up her final lyrics to, “You know what San Francisco? I didn’t do anything wrong!”



Wolf also sang “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?” and asked for the audience’s opinion on whether the song “needed anything.” As her set progressed, she even traded places with her drummer to play own drum solo as the drummer instead read out affirmations for the audience to repeat, such as “I’m in the right place doing the right thing” and ”I know how to do my taxes.” Toward the end, she played “Shawty,” from her first EP, You’re a Dog!, which she flawlessly transitioned into Shaggy’s “It Wasn’t Me.”

One thing that was impossible to ignore was the chemistry between her and one of her guitarists. During many of the songs like “Sexy Villain” and “Liz,” the two would play-fight mid-song. She would twirl in circles around him up close and he would put his guitar on her head, turning her hat askew. It was clear they enjoyed doing this routine, but who knows if this was just for show or if there is something deeper beneath the surface.

Other notable songs included “Wyd,” “Monte Carlo,” “Sally” and “Guerrilla.”



Grace Ives

Grace Ives performs at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco on Jan. 24, 2022.

Wolf ended her set with her TikTok-viral hit “Photo ID,” concluding with a somersault, and lying on the ground and shaking her feet in the air. She came back for an encore of the slow and melodic “Street You Live On” and “Disco Man.”

“Let’s do this,” opener Grace Ives said as she jumped right in with her performance.

Ives started each song, such as “Anything” and “Angel of Business,” by playing a few mellow notes on the keyboard or singing before immediately launching into a bass-heavy upbeat track. She exuded confidence with her gesturing and body rolling, and had a way of talking to the crowd as if she was just talking to herself out loud, both during and in-between songs. Even her sad song was “good sad, great sad,” and sounded just as high-energy as everything else. Most of them ended as abruptly as they started.

Follow photographer Onome Uyovbievbo at Twitter.com/byonome and Instagram.com/by.onome.

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