Well, here’s something outside of
my musical wheelhouse, as often is the case with the daughter of the house… One
of Jami’s favourite “pop” vocalists Maisie Peters (whom J had seen supporting
Taylor Swift on the Eras tour last year, and who had sold out Wembley Arena in
her own right on her last tour) announced a couple of short notice, “intimate”
gigs over at Hackney’s EartH venue, to premiere some new material in front of a
small but devoted audience, and Jami wanted “in” on them. Tix went on pre-sale
on Monday so I jumped on them toot sweet, waiting in a small queue but
snagging a couple quickly. Good thing too, as apparently the general sale 2
days later all sold out in a minute! Yikes!
We went for day 1 Thursday as it was better for Jami’s college schedule; so, the excited offspring and I set off about 2.45, parking in Osterley before an easier-than-feared underground/ overground trek to Hackney, joining the queue at 5.30, 2 hours before doors (!). Jami chatted with Becca, a fellow fan who’d flown down from her home near Loch Ness (!) and whom Jami had been chatting with on the online MP “Discord Chat Community. Because that’s apparently how kids these days do that; me, I just go up to someone at the front and say, “cool t-shirt, mate…!” EartH itself is a 2-room venue, with May-May in the 680-capacity Theatre and twee indie bunch Allo Darlin’, surprisingly, in the larger Hall tonight (my mate Stu being at that one!). As I was rocking a Wedding Present tshirt and my Smiths shirt, I clearly looked out of place queueing for Maisie, as at least 3 blokes asked me if our queue was for Allo Darlin, or was I in the wrong queue altogether!
Eventually we headed in at 7.30, getting our stamps for entry into the Theatre itself, then Jami going back for a merch run in the lobby. My mission was therefore to hold a space down the front of this wooden tiered amphitheatre style venue, the “floor” itself being only about 3 or 4 rows wide! Jami got back in good time for support Nell Mescal, on at 8.15. Flanked by 2 acoustic guitarists, she warbled her way through a clutch of understated pastoral numbers with a slight alt-country feel, mainly on the subject of convoluted relationships. A couple of later numbers had an almost Celtic, atmospheric Clannad vibe to them and were pretty decent actually, but the set felt overlong and ran over May-May’s scheduled 8.45 start…
So, a quick turnaround was called for; luckily the roadies just had to unplug the guitars, take the cover off the keyboards and bring on a small side table with a vase of flowers on it! So the lights dimmed promptly at 5 past 9 to screams from the young and overwhelmingly female (or AFAB at least) massive, with the very tiny Maisie buoyantly following her 4-piece band on stage after a “Before The Bloom” spoken word intro. Pastoral country opener “Love Him I Don’t” immediately saw a mass singalong break out, Maisie encouraging this off-mic, then the jolly snarky diss pop of “Lost The Breakup” was followed by Maisie gushingly thanking her devotees, “for selling this place out in under a minute!”
Totally not my thing, this, of course,
but I can obviously appreciate the connection Maisie engenders with her young
fans, speaking to them in their language about coming of age, feeling isolated,
issues they’re all facing, during oft-lengthy between-song expositions. Also,
like her clear role model Tay-Tay, May-May writes her own stuff; mainstream
pop, sure, but often thoughtful and well-constructed. An early “Place We Were Made”
was a wistful and contemplative hymn to home; the new “You You You” was a
proper old melancholy wallow; and oldie “History Of Man” was an understated and
brooding treatise on relationships through the ages. Good old misery stuff,
sure, but all received with joyful and lengthy acclaim.
The bouncier and upbeat “There It Goes” rounded off a brief vignette of a set, not quite breaking the hour mark, the set brevity and plethora of new numbers meaning my favourite “The Band And I” didn’t get an airing. Yeah, I’ve got a favourite Maisie Peters song – get over it! We hung around afterwards for setlists, but apparently (and understandably) they were being reused for night 2! So, a quick wander back to the Dalston overground saw us jump on a tube at Highbury and Islington just as it was departing – or so we thought… a “customer incident” delayed its’ departure, so it was utterly sardine rammed when we left, a lady thankfully giving up a seat for my visibly agitated daughter. Then, when it got going, the lights cut out for 2 stops! Yikes! We changed at Green Park, hoping that was the end of our adventures, only to be forced to change again as our apparently Heathrow-bound train inexplicably turned into the Uxbridge train en route! Then, after hitting the M4 for a swift drive home (we hoped), J12-J13 motorway closures saw us tramping along winding Berkshire country lanes for ages, finally getting home at a red-eyed 1.10. Double yikes! No surprise then that Jami didn’t emerge the next morning until nearly 1 p.m., but the verdict was, it was worth all the hassle. So, hooray for that, and overall a very successful Maisie Peters daddy-daughter night out… I’m guessing we might be back for the new album tour next year…
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