Home Live Review Live Review: Wardruna w/ Chelsea Wolfe @ Warner Theater — 9/28/25

Live Review

Live Review: Wardruna w/ Chelsea Wolfe @ Warner Theater — 9/28/25

October 6, 2025

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Wardruna is a Norwegian band that has gained a pretty loyal group of fans. They play folk music based on traditional Norse stories and traditions. They also use traditional instruments like the kraviklyra, deer hide drums, jouhikko, and a Seussian-looking horn called the lur. Look them up. I could go down a rabbit hole here about old, traditional instruments so I need to nip that in the bud immediately.

Their music is exactly what you’d think it is: acoustic, melancholy, and haunting. Check out the video for the title track from their latest album, Birna.

Watch the official music video for “Birna” by Wardruna on YouTube:

When the band is as unique in their sound as Wardruna, opening acts have to be just as unique. They really hit a home run with the opener for this leg of the tour. Chelsea Wolfe warmed up the audience at Warner Theatre in DC on Sept. 28.

And warmed up is a relative term. Chelsea’s music is not warm and happy. It’s brooding, melancholy, and powerful. And it’s exactly the right music to begin a Wardruna show.

The incredible part, though, is that Chelsea can and does headline her own tours. It shows the immense respect she has for Wardruna and their music. Her set was beautifully dark and sparse with simply Chelsea on guitar and vocals and longtime collaborator Ben Chisholm on keyboards. She began her set with a poem called “Her Kind” by Anne Sexton. She performed a flawless set with 10 more tracks that drew me in and almost made me forget to press the shutter. If Wardruna had decided not to play, I would still have been satisfied seeing Chelsea Wolfe’s set.

Fortunately for me and everyone else, Wardruna DID take the stage. Taking a step back, though, Wardruna draws a unique audience. Their fans are passionate about the music, the music, and Scandinavian/Viking culture. They came in a sea of headbands, kilts, fur skins, braided goatees, and leather everything. There was a sense of community there, not just a bunch of people gathered to see a concert.

Singer Einar Selvik’s mic stand was decorated with an antler. Other than that, the stage setup was minimal. A few risers for the supporting musicians and a textured background were about it. The set began with John Stenersen highlighted on a precursor to the fiddle called the moraharpa, for the song “Kvitravn.” The intensity of the song carried through the whole show. But really, I didn’t expect anything different. There’s a reason Wardruna is the go-to outfit when shows like Vikings are looking for authentic music.

The band kept the intensity by not really saying anything between songs until the very end of the show.

In fact, there wasn’t much movement at all for the concert. During a few songs, singer Lindy-Faye Hella would dance, but overall the members remained focused on delivering an unforgettable performance. It’s amazing how much emotion can be conveyed by staying controlled.

Fifteen songs went by before Einar (or anyone else for that matter) said much of anything to the crowd. But when he did speak, it was powerful. He implored everyone to look inward to their own heritage and find the music that makes up their history. Embrace it. Learn it. Teach it. Because if you don’t, who will? So much of our histories will be lost to time. But much can also be saved by learning and passing along our heritage to younger generations. Then he played “Helvegen” as an encore.

Einar thanked the crowd for coming out to support them and to hear the music. As he was speaking, about a third of the crowd began to leave. That was too bad because he wrapped up the entire show with a lullaby, alone on stage. He performed “Hibjørnen” from their latest release, Birna, before exiting the stage with the rest of the group.

It was an amazing show that transported us all to a different time. I know that’s true because of all the people in the crowd standing arms down, palms up, heads tilted to the sky with their eyes closed, chanting the lyrics. It’s pretty wild to see people in Washington, DC, singing in a foreign language. They may not even know the meaning of the words. But that isn’t the point. The point is what the music does to you. The music moved space and time that night. I am glad I could witness it.