Words originally for Outline Magazine
Misty Miller is a good kid turned bad. She’s a force to be reckoned with, part Ramone, part Thora Birch in Ghostworld, with a bedraggled feminist image and the writing skills most young punks can only dream of. Her new album hit shelves this month, so I headed to Norwich Arts Centre to check out just why The Whole Family is Worried.
Emily Winng supports. A Norwich favourite it seems, but one I’ve never caught live before. Winng fronts, with four accomplices manning various instruments in a mismatchy array that could well be five strangers who met on a bus and decided to start a band. The music is endearingly haphazard, chirpy and jangly with Winng’s bold vocals slicing through the room like a meat cleaver. But gentler. Think Little Comets meets Kate Nash. It’s summery and upbeat, and the revelation that “half the band are drunk” certainly adds to the entertainment.
Misty Miller’s set buzzes from the first song – Happy, a favourite, which starts deceptively slowly before ploughing the tempo up Jamie T Zombie style. There aren’t a lot of us (shame on anyone who went to Bassjam instead of this) but bassist Charlie Elliott rounds us all promptly to the front for Other Girls. It’s breezier than most of Miller’s tracks but still packs a lyrical punch, outing her as a romantic at heart beneath the ripped denim exterior.
A nod to her last visit to Norwich, supporting The Crookes in February, marks one of Miller’s few ad-libs this evening. She’s glad to be here, but for a Saturday night the atmosphere is a little rigid, so three songs come back-to-back with no stopping for breath. Taxi Cab has a bluesy Jake Bugg feel to it, brimming with late night quips from hometown Brixton, and Devil, albeit the slowest part of the show, is one of the highlights. It’s almost The Only Exception by Paramore, but less embarrassing. Girlfriend and Sugar to Me come next, hinting at a classic/punk rock background with fizzing guitars and hold-up-your-lighters choruses.
Iggy Pop is channelled on Lonesome Cowboy, a rumbling ballad, “that we haven’t played for a while”, and Stars holds wisps of Courtney Barnett’s deadpan spirit in amongst its anti-relationship musings. But comparisons aside, Miller is a series talent in her own right, playing phenomenally and delightfully all night long. She ends with Next to You, a riot of screeching riffs and crashing drums, before exiting swiftly besides her three band mates. An unexpected encore comes in the form of a One Direction cover (I did say unexpected) made impressively enjoyable via a punky twist, ending a delicious 45 minutes of semi-organised chaos from a talent I’ll be sure to watch in months to come.
Misty Miller's The Whole Family is Worried is out now.
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