lush-mhow

Lush played Music Hall of Williamsburg, their first NYC show in 20 years (pics / setlist / video)

Lush played Music Hall of Williamsburg last night which was their first NYC show in 20 years. I’m happy to report that the shoegaze/Britpop vets were really in top form and, apart from some jokes about the age of the crowd by Miki Berenyi, sounded very of the moment. They were also, appropriately, very very loud, which is a key feature of this kind of music. You need to feel it in your chest. The band kicked things off with one of their best, most popular songs, “De-Luxe,” and with that Lush had everyone in their pocket the whole night.

The setlist was pretty hard to argue with, pulling from all their records, including “hits” like “Hypocrite,” “For Love,” “Ladykillers,” and “Sweetness and Light,” as well as deeper cuts, ethereal bliss-outs and a couple songs from their excellent new EP, Blind Spot. One of those, “Lost Boy,” was played live for the first time last night and dedicated to Chris Acland, Lush’s original drummer whose 1996 suicide ended the band. (Onetime Elastica drummer Justin Welch is behind the kit now.) We also got “Nothing Natural,” one of Spooky‘s finest cuts, which the band hadn’t played live since 1993. Setlist is below.

It was an enthusiastic crowd — one dude was particularly so, shouting things like “NOW LET’S HEAR IT FOR PHIL!!!” between songs — and Miki in particular seemed chuffed and taken aback by their ardor. (Emma Anderson and Phil King let Miki do all the talking.) The only thing more I could’ve wanted was maybe punky early cut “Bitter” and the surprise announcement of “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Jarvis Cocker” for “Ciao!” (which did not happen).

Lush play again tonight at Terminal 5 which is also with well-matched tourmate Tamaryn. Tickets are still available. We have a full set of pictures from the MHOW show in the gallery above (by P Squared Media), and some videos from the show below.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BKUxtMKDlcW/?taken-at=97445

https://www.instagram.com/p/BKUtWcKBZNn/?taken-at=97445
https://www.instagram.com/p/BKUq6L2gUQ1/?taken-at=97445

SETLIST: Lush @ Music Hall of Williamsburg 9/13/2016
De-Luxe
Breeze
Kiss Chase
Hypocrite
Lovelife
Thoughtforms
Light From a Dead Star
Undertow
Lit Up
Scarlet
Etheriel
Nothing Natural
For Love
Out of Control
Ladykillers
Downer
Sweetness and Light

Encore:
Lost Boy
Desire Lines

Encore 2:
Monochrome
Leaves Me Cold