Another Rough Trade early evening shindig,
this one, and a chance to rectify a recent wrong by actually paying (more) attention
this time… I’d very recently encountered “My Shoegaze Queen”, ethereal-voiced
yet sweary sailor-mouthed former Lush frontperson Miki Berenyi, fronting her
new atmospheric trio in Bristol on a late call at the end of January (gig
1,366), but the circumstances of the day had meant my head wasn’t fully in the
game, and I actually dipped out of the Golden Lion’s busy back room venue for half
of their nonetheless fine and resonant set. No such excuses this time, though,
as this was another “meet and greet” with the band, celebrating the release of
their debut full-length, “Tripla”, which by all accounts not only is a pretty
decent piece of work according to early reviews, but would also likely be
played in full tonight…
So, an early evening drive down a sunny M4 got me parked up about 7, to join a smattering of folk in for a relatively quiet Sunday evening event. Joined recent gig buddy Guy from Bournemouth (!) down the front for a chat about last weekend’s Wedding Present gig, whilst Miki and her back-up boys set up. Miki then announced the reason for her tardiness onstage, saying to Guy, “I remembered, I forgot your brownies! Fuck, the brownies!”, to which guitarist and partner Moose replied, “fuck the brownies!” Punctuation is so important…
Anyhoops, on to the music… this early evening, Miki Berenyi and her trio delivered another understated but beguiling and dreamy performance, those familiar aspects of Lush such as shimmering, dreamlike pedal effects, pulsing, often off-kilter beats (supplied of course by backing loops) and of course Miki’s own perfectly enunciated, high register vocals in full force and effect, weaving a heavy, intoxicating and almost trancey atmosphere. It’s not quite rock’n’roll but I still like it… “Vertigo”s slow pitter patter and moody, “breathe out, breathe in,” hook was a dreamy note of meandering melancholy; “Gango”’s backbeat percussive pattern and herky-jerky beat recalled early Talking Heads (not the only number to do so tonight) and required a more assertive and strident vocal from Miki, eliciting a remark of, “that’s my exercise for the day, I need a fucking sit down now!”; and “Kinch” featured a lovely minor chord choral descent. Throughout all this, our Shoegaze Queen was her usual affable and sardonic self, offering an over-emphasised, “thank yewwww!” after every number, bantering with the front rows about their Sunday night drinking (Miki’s remark of, “I wasn’t going to [drink] today… not because of god…” eliciting a murmured, “sounds a bit goddy to me…” from bassist Oliver) and relating a tale of a previous night’s punter asking if a later “Manu” was called Man U (!), prompting a punter (a Leeds fan) to advocate for a punching for the offender!
The robust New Order-esque synth beat and infectious undulating repetitive hook of “8th Deadly Sin” was again my set highlight as well as an early candidate for my “Best of 2025” compo CD, although set “closer” “Big I Am” was a buoyant close runner up with its “ba ba ba” harmonies; then on top of the out-of-sequence full album run through, old Lush number “Undertow” (“we really enjoy playing this so we may record it…” commented Miki) fit snugly onto the end, demonstrating the apples haven’t really fallen far from the tree.
I’d taken a late-set break but still
managed to squirm forward to be in prime position for Miki’s list, provided by
bassist Oliver, then joined the back of the queue with Guy, eventually greeting
Miki with “my Queen!” to her amusement and having a brief chat about the
returning My Bloody Valentine and their Wembley gig in November. “I think we’ll
be able to hear it from our house!” she deadpanned to Moose at the prospect. Farewells
to Guy and an economy drive home, back in the ‘don for half nine (!). Another
successful Rough Trade evening, then, a promising new Miki album to listen to,
and I’m glad I got to pay more attention this evening!
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