Photos and Review by Jennie Book
@jenniebookphotography

The Miki Berenyi Trio (Miki Berenyi, Oliver Cherer, and Mick Conroy) came to the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco on June 1 and played Lush and Piroshka songs mixed with some new material to the major delight of the sold-out capacity crowd.

When this limited tour was announced it was almost too good to be true – Berenyi on stage with members of Dollboy and Modern English, and Lol Tolhurst (The Cure) and Budgie (Siouxsie and the Banshees) opening? Dream teams.

Lush started life in the late 80s in England, and enjoyed a lot of success being at the forefront of the shoegaze sound. I’m thinking of a time in 1992 when Ride, The Charlatans, Catherine Wheel, and Lush were in heavy rotation, and then that summer Lush played Lollapalooza alongside Red Hot Chili Peppers and Soundgarden and somehow it all worked. After a long relationship with Lush, Berenyi went on to form Piroshka, and it’s only recently that The Miki Berenyi Trio (MB3) was formed.

At GAMH Lol and Budgie opened the night with both of them sitting behind drum kits, and they played an 8 song set that included dual drumming and some synths over prerecorded experimental vocals, while abstract imagery played on a screen behind them. A current rippled through the crowd as the opening bars of The Cure’s “A Forest” began, with Tolhurst up front at the MIDI box while not-Robert-Smith vocals accompanied. The two of them looked to be having a fantastic time and the crowd was too.

Berenyi and mates came out next to enthusiastic cheers and jumped right into it with “Stray,” “Leaves Me Cold,” and “Hurricane.” The fourth song up was “Vertigo,” MB3’s new single, and it’s really good. Another crowdpleaser came soon after with “Light From A Dead Star,” and the last song before the encore was big favorite “Ladykillers,” where Berenyi looked like she was about twenty-two years old up on stage. She laughed before not leaving the stage for a break, and said that the crowd would just have to pretend they’d left and come back, to which the crowd responded by cheering and stomping for them to “come back for an encore,” which made Miki happily say, “That was fuckin great!”

With two songs to end the night (“Suzanne,” and “Baby Talk”) before exiting, the band solidified their place in the hearts of their fans with their great musicianship, some nostalgia, but mostly great riveting songs that everyone will keep enjoying for many decades more.

The tour’s a quick one but for the latest information check out www.mikistuff.com and @berenyi_miki – see them live when you can!