I walked into the Commodore during the middle of Jax Anderson’s performance and immediately fell into a rage over the Translink strike affecting my arrival time. Anderson, who used to perform under the moniker Flint Eastwood was using everything she had to entertain the crowd and it was working like a charm. I’m sure a better person would have been grateful just to have been able to hear her powerful electro-pop tunes live but what can I say, I just wanted a little more. Hopefully she’ll be back again soon enough.
Miya Folick was up next and although I’m not normally one for sweeping statements, if you have ever heard her and don’t think she’s amazing then you are just plain wrong and we can’t be friends. Those around me were comparing her to other great songstresses like Florence Welch or Sinead O’Connor and while I see where they are coming from, for some reason I was getting a kind of Tori Amos meets Bjork vibe that I just can’t shake.
The LA based singer-songwriter let loose a passionate performance with ethereal vocals, heart-rendering lyrics and body movements that would put some contemporary dancers to shame. I don’t know if intensely raw is a thing… but that’s what she was. A strangely hypnotic unification of garage rocker and songbird, there were moments during her short set where her delicate vocals resonated and moments when an electric guitar shook the rafters.
I’ve been listening to her CD Premonitions a lot since the show and I just freaking love it. I could easily put “Thingamajig” on repeat, and “Stop Talking” is a playful take on the tough love we need in our closest friendships.
If the night had been just Jax Anderson and Miya Folick, I would have considered it an evening well spent.
Enter Bishop Briggs.
And when I say enter, I mean bound across the stage as if her legs were springs and her arms were confetti shot from a cannon. She opened the show with “Champion,” the title track from her latest album that dropped a few days after the show. It might be my favourite song about self-love at the moment because I love the ferocity in which it’s delivered and the redemptive overtones of the song as a whole.
After gushing over the massive applause that followed, Briggs followed up with a couple of her earlier tunes. First, her very first single, the blues infused “Wild Horses”, and then “Darker Side,” a bold invitation to embrace the parts of ourselves that we don’t always feel comfortable showing the rest of the world.
Born Sarah Grace McLaughlin, Bishop Briggs is explosive in nearly every way imaginable and the stage was set up for her to easily demonstrate that to her fans. It was bare save for Briggs herself and a video screen that ran the length of it, with her two band mates perched above. This allowed for Briggs to fully express herself physically and vocally.
She belted out a beautiful mix of music that encompassed her full catalog plus a cool medley of cover songs from 21 Pilots, My Chemical Romance and Panic! At the Disco. She vaulted from one side of the stage to the other, shifting gracefully from empowered rockstar, to bashful young woman. “Jekyll and Hide” seemed to get the biggest reaction from fans, while “Tattooed on My Heart” was the highlight for me.
Briggs ended the night as mightily as she had opened it, this time with “River,” the hit that catapulted her career nearly four years ago. Much has changed for the British born, LA based artist, and I’ve been loving every part of her evolution. With the success of Champion and it’s accompanying tour, a short run of shows in Europe and an appearance on a popular late night TV show, 2019 will go down in the books as a big win for Bishop Briggs.
Note: This post has been edited from its’ original form (photo gallery only) to include the written article.
PHOTO GALLERY
Click on image to enlarge :)
