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Miki Berenyi Trio Setlist
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Great American Music Hall
San Francisco
June 1, 2024
Miki Berenyi, one of the founding members of the seminal ‘90s shoegaze band Lush, loves to say “f**k.” As in, “I’ve played you a couple of Lush songs, so don’t go f**k off to the bar now.”
The audience who attended the Miki Berenyi Trio’s sold-out show at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall seemed to love the sass. But even more, they cheered a setlist full of songs from Lush and Piroshka, Berenyi’s previous bands. Mixed in with the walls of guitar and airy vocals, Berenyi dutifully delivered the hits that any legacy band knows to deliver to the fans, including Lush’s 1996 single, “Ladykillers,” part of an encore where they just pretended to leave the stage but really just stayed put, doing away with the pretense. (Although the audience did do the traditional "Please play some more!" cheering and foot-stomping, for which Berenyi was suitably amused.) But this version they offered was less “britpop” and more venomous, leaning towards a gothic-industrial mood. The whole night had a spooky vibe, a haunted mansion of atmospheric guitar and vocals trying both to summon and wake the dead.
Their setlist also included “Covert” and “For Love,” from Lush’s 1992 debut, Spooky, along with “Light from a Dead Star” from their 1994 album Split. “Was that from Split?” she asked the crowd. “I can’t f**king remember.” It’s been awhile since the band’s heyday, so she can be forgiven for the lapse in memory, as long as the trio brought the gauzy, luscious rock, which they did in spades. And since Berenyi’s recent memoir, Fingers Crossed: How Music Saved Me From Success, might have rankled former Lush bandmates like Emma Anderson with its take-no-prisoners confessions, the trio’s Lush covers may be the only Lush “reunion” we get.
The Miki Berenyi Trio—consisting of Berenyi, her longtime partner Kevin “Moose” McKillop, and Oliver Cherer—also played their own songs, of course, a seamless fit for the shoegaze genre. Tracks like “Hurricane” and “Vertigo” were studded with reverb and haunting melodies. Against a backdrop of dreamy visuals projected onto the screen behind them, it was a night of aural soundscapes and Berenyi’s atmospheric vocals, the kind of music that makes you close your eyes and drift on waves of distortion and a holy racket of sound.
The opening band, Lol Tolhurst & Budgie, had dueling drumkits and instrumentals recalling the catchier ‘90s electronica-as-mood music vibe (their music features guest artists like James Murphy and Bobby Gillespie), something nice, say, for an evening on the open road before you head to a rave.
Miki Berenyi Trio at Great American Music Hall (01 Jun 2024)
Great review. I first saw Lush in 1991, saw Piroshka in 2019 and saw MB3 two wkds ago at NYC's Webster Hall. I thought MB3 sounded great. I didn't check any set lists beforehand but did watch/listen a few times to their professionally-recorded September 2023 Paris Popfest performance on YouTube, so I knew most of the new MB3 songs. I like all Lush, although I'd say Ladykillers is my least favorite song from my least favorite album of theirs. I never expected them to play it but really enjoyed how they delivered it this time - in a more "classic Lush" manner. Btw, opening act drummers Lol (The Cure) and Budgie (Siouxsie & The Banshees) came on to play on our show's finale at Webster Hall, Baby Talk (early Lush song). Miki says this mini-U.S. tour did well enough that they play to return in 2025 (hopefully, WITH Moose!) and will also release an MB3 album next year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwBhYRZqQsc
Posted by: Sean King | 06/18/2024 at 08:06 AM