Mae Muller kicked off her UK headline tour with a sold-out show at the Club Academy in Manchester, a city she described midway through the set as “my favourite city to play outside my home London.”
To be fair, you can see why as well. Describing this sold-out room as absolutely bouncing would be an understatement. “They’ve been like this all night,” laughs security as track after track of teen-pop anthems booms out over the speakers prior to London pop princess Mae Muller taking to the www. When she does appear, the young crowd in her second home, lose their minds.
Touring in support of her 2020 Capitol Records debut EP, “no one else, not even you”, the show of the same name is packed with angsty teen pop anthems. The set kicks off with “Nails So Long” taken from the aforementioned EP with Muller bouncing around the stage sporting a huge grin and a stack of attitude. Without a break the temperature gets cranked up as the energy-soaked “Dependant” pumps out into a room of fans, mobile phones in the air, are dancing right to the back of the room.
“Does anybody have a birthday in here tonight?” asks Mae, to be greeted by screams from the crowd as the singer explains the meaning behind the next song before launching into the expletive-laden but incredibly fun birthday tune “HFBD”.
Away from the massive fun side to a Mae Muller show there is a serious touch as the Londoner addresses the room explaining how her gigs will always be a “safe space with no judgement or pressure”. It’s during moments like these you really seen the connection Muller has with her fans who shower the stage with gifts including a Muller yoghurt, a mobile phone and bunches of flowers.
A false start to the currently unreleased track “Bad Thoughts” saw the singer forget the words but, with a smile on her face and a quick laugh about it, this entertaining faux-pas was quickly forgotten by everyone.
Packing out her set with a mix of old (“Jenny” and “Anticlimax”) and new tracks (“Plot Twist” and “Work Like That”), this sold-out night couldn’t have seen Muller’s “no one else, not even you” UK headline tour start in a better way. Just don’t expect to see her in a venue this intimate next time she struts into Manchester.
Photo Copyright © Graham Finney Photography
