MIKI BERENYI TRIO + WHERE WE SLEEP – DUST, BRIGHTON 11.5.25
Many music fans will be aware of Lush who were founded in London back in 1987 and that they were fronted by Miki Berenyi on vocals and guitar, and that they were one of the first bands to have been described with the “shoegazing” label. Their trio of albums all came out on the famed 4AD label and all of them made it into the UK Top 20. Sadly they called it a day after their drummer Chris Acland passed away in 1996. They did briefly reconvene in 2015 for a number of months with former Elastica drummer Justin Welch taking over for Acland.
Wind the clock forward to September 2018 and Miki announced that she had formed a new band called Piroshka with her partner, former Moose member K.J. “Moose” McKillop, as well as Justin Welch and Michael Conroy (Modern English). Their debut album, ‘Brickbat’, was released by Simon Raymonde’s Bella Union label on 15th February 2019. A second album, ‘Love Drips and Gathers’, followed on 23rd July 2021. We were fortunate to have reviewed them on at least a couple of occasions – Read our account of their December 2019 headline gig HERE.
When the global pandemic made touring impossible, Miki spent the lockdown months writing her memoir, ‘Fingers Crossed’, which was released in 2022 to widespread acclaim. To provide some musical accompaniment for the string of book events and signings, Miki Berenyi Trio (MB3) was formed with partner Kevin along with guitarist Oliver Cherer, who has his own outfit called Aircooled, who we have seen playing live on a few occasions – Read our account of last November’s headline gig HERE. MB3 prefer to use a drum machine, so this new band lineup is merely a trio of musicians who first worked together during Piroshka’s 2021 tour and Oliver came about on account of Mick Conroy moving to the USA.
MB3 has developed a momentum of its own, touring with the Wedding Present and Gang of Four and sold out London co-headline show with Aircooled. Miki Berenyi Trio released their debut long-player, titled ‘Tripla’ on 4th April. The album’s richly layered, imaginative and uniquely slanted strain of dream pop is an often euphoric and sometimes melancholic mix of guitars and electronica, fronted by Miki’s instantly recognisable vocal, overlaid with an often profound and sometimes abrasive or yearning view of the world. Check it out HERE.
Tonight sees MB3 performing an intimate concert in Brighton at the Dust venue, which is located in East Street. The concert has been organised by Love Thy Neighbour promoters, and sees the band perform a 65 minute 13 song set, comprising all of the songs on the new LP as well as some surprises!
The trio take to the compact stage at 8:43pm and Kevin is to our left (stage right) and is in charge of a Fender Mustang guitar along with 12 foot pedals, plus a control unit with a dozen knobs to tap. Centre stage is Miki on a Fender Stratocaster with 8 foot pedals, and to our right (stage left) is Oliver who is taking take of drum machine unit duties with his foot as well as playing Squier Jazz bass and offering backing vocals when necessary. The venue sound and lighting is good.
They kick off with ‘Hurricane’ from their ‘Tripla’ album, which is a decent toe tapping tune featuring Miki’s trademark sweet distinctive vocal delivery, with the assistance of Oliver on backing. There’s a massive applause at the end and clearly it’s going to go very well this evening. Tune two is ‘Vertigo’ which is on the album, and this has a booming backing beat and Miki’s vocals remind me of Kirsty McColl’s. The melodic bossa nova styled ‘A Different Girl’ completes a trio from the album. Things then get a tad funky with the arrival of a cover of the Lush tune ‘Undertow’ from 1994’s ‘Split’ Lush album. The bass intro of which reminds me of Confidence Man’s ‘Boyfriend (Repeat)’ and for me it’s the best tune thus far.
There are more layers of sound and guitar loveliness with the arrival of ‘Gango’ from the ‘Tripla’ album, and then comes the dreamy ‘Kinch’ which has more angelic vocal deliveries. After this Miki informs us that the next tune is ‘Manu’ and not “Man U” as in Manchester United, which gets a giggle or two. This one has a pleasant bass sound and is a good foot-tapping tune, and it’s another set highlight. Another one from the album arrives, this being ‘8th Deadly Sin’, which has a skippy electronic backing and recorded drums that kicks this one off. It’s another immediate tune with some joint vocal deliveries and it’s my new fave tune. ‘Ubique’ from the album is choice nine and this begins with what sounds like a xylophone intro, for this slow dreamy song.
We are then informed that they are going to play a Piroshka song next, this turns out to be ‘Scratching At The Lid’ from 2021’s ‘Love Drips And Gathers’ album. This features some fast strumming and I have to say it is for me, more immediate than the MB3 material thus far, but then I guess I’vee had five years of enjoyment of the Piroshka track already. I was particularly enamoured with Kevin’s guitar playing at this point as it reminded me of Robert Fripp’s work on David Bowie’s “Heroes”. The trio seriously rocked on out towards the end of this track, and dare I actually say this, but this was the best track of the whole performance for yours truly! Some top bass note action came along next for ‘Big I Am’ from the MB3 album.
Miki then referred to the next number as “the crowd pleaser” and they performed the famed ‘Ladykillers’ by Lush from 1996’s ‘Lovelife’ album. Kevin was speedy on this one as well, although possibly the backing sound wasn’t quite what they desired and something was quite possibly afoot. This I believe led them to drop the next proposed song, which should have been ‘Baby Talk’ from the Lush ‘Scar’ album from 1989, as Oliver informed me that something in the foot unit wasn’t picking up – technology eh! Miki then told the packed crowd that they don’t do encores and that the next song will be their last. She added that they had recently got back off from touring with Lol Tollhurst, of The Cure fame, and that MB3 and him had been working on this next song, it’s title is ‘Stranger’ and vocally it reminded me of Strawberry Switchblade’s ‘Trees And Flowers’ tune, but this new track, benefitted of more layers and depth of sound. And at 9:48pm that was our lot and punters were directed to the merch stand at the rear of the venue, suffice to say many did take Miki up on the offer of joining her there.
Miki Berenyi Trio:
Miki Berenyi – lead vocals, guitar
Kevin ‘Moose’ McKillop – guitar
Oliver Cherer – vocals, bass
Miki Berenyi Trio setlist:
‘Hurricane’ (from 2025 ‘Tripla’ album)
‘Vertigo’ (from 2025 ‘Tripla’ album)
‘A Different Girl’ (from 2025 ‘Tripla’ album)
‘Undertow’ (Lush cover) (from 1994 ‘Split’ Lush album)
‘Gango’ (from 2025 ‘Tripla’ album)
‘Kinch’ (from 2025 ‘Tripla’ album)
‘Manu’ (from 2025 ‘Tripla’ album)
‘8th Deadly Sin’ (from 2025 ‘Tripla’ album)
‘Ubique’ (from 2025 ‘Tripla’ album)
‘Scratching At The Lid’ (Piroshka cover) (from 2021 ‘Love Drips And Gathers’ Piroshka album)
‘Big I Am’ (from 2025 ‘Tripla’ album)
‘Ladykillers’ (Lush cover) (from 1996 ‘Lovelife’ Lush album)
‘Stranger’ (unreleased)
Support this evening comes from Where We Sleep which is pretty much the solo project of Beth Rettig, who is perhaps best known as the frontwoman of alt-pop outfit Blindness. As you would expect, Beth is on lead vocals, but also takes to the guitar (Fender Telecaster) later on in the set. Accompanying her on stage tonight is former Blindness bandmate Debbie Smith (who is on guitar duties as well as backing vocals) and who is also known as being a member Curve, Echobelly and SPC ECO. Cementing the quartet, who are all clad in black, with golden bumper boots are a Fender Jazz bassist and a drummer who also has use of Roland drum pads. It’s a relatively short 29 minute, 6 track performance, which ran from 7:51pm to 8:20pm.
Where We Sleep’s first material came out mid 2018 and a further 8 releases have dropped since then. Tonight’s tunes are culled from two of those releases. First up is ‘Broken Things’ which is found on 2021’s ‘The Scars They Leave’ album and so the indie rock sound is set for the duration of the performance. Tune two is ‘Into The Light’ from 2019’s ‘Experiments In The Dark’ EP and this is very much in the same vein, but there’s a slight Siouxsie & The Banshees and Patti Smith going on. This is followed by the more urgent brand new tune called ‘Outside’. We are informed that we are literally the first people to hear the track outside of their (rehearsal) room. This is followed by another cut from the ‘Experiments In The Dark’ EP, this being ‘The Desert’, which features some accomplished reverb guitar action and bass licks.
Intriguingly, their setlists are showing their penultimate number as “*****” because it turns out to be a cover version Beth informs us, adding that it’s their interpretation of an old English folk song from the 1990’s, but its title is not introduced. After a few lines one guy claps his appreciation and I see at least one other person singing along to it. Clearly they are in the know, but it’s not a tune that I knowingly recognised. This was a drumming led track that they rocked on out to. It was their most intense song of the set. They signed off with ‘Drive’ from the ‘The Scars They Leave’ album, with its memorable “Get in the car and drive” chorus. This too was a rockin’ number and they went down really well with the punters, but in all honesty, it wasn’t anything that I hadn’t heard many times before.
Where We Sleep:
Beth Rettig – lead vocals, guitar
Debbie Smith – guitar, backing vocals
? – bass
? – drums
Where We Sleep setlist:
‘Broken Things’ (from 2021 ‘The Scars They Leave’ album)
‘Into The Light’ (from 2019 ‘Experiments In The Dark’ EP)
‘Outside’ (unreleased)
‘The Desert’ (from 2019 ‘Experiments In The Dark’ EP)
“Unknown cover” (unreleased)
‘Drive’ (from 2021 ‘The Scars They Leave’ album)
