poppedmusic

The Mispers

Flyover Portabello, London, November 20th

Words: Haven Laine

In their 3^rd and final London show of the “November Search Party”, The Mispers are jovial with the audience before the show, encouraging everyone to check out the opening band Gutshot for Broadway; A four-piece with a massive sound. With flavours of Muse’s showbiz they utilised political speech sound bytes, screaming guitar solos and guttural vocals leading into pitch perfect falsettos. They were a great opener with a surprising amount of confidence.

After 40 minutes, The Mispers get on stage and suddenly the gig feels sold out. The Band turns into a huddle and we hear the opening bars of Dark Bits – a strong starter with heavy rock feel. The crowd was so warmed up they started jumping immediately, I even saw a man well into his 50s in the centre of the mosh, loving every minute of it. The Mispers clearly aren’t limiting themselves to one demographic. Which is good considering their beginnings as a very folk sounding band.

The second song It Goes Against us is a strangely dark song with lyrics like “You get never much to hold chasing me”, and I don’t doubt it;
Jack is the front man that every singer wants to be. He effortlessly uses his entire body and as much space as possible, so much so that you forget his only “instrument” is his voice.  While gyrating on his microphone stand, Jack’s vocals don’t falter and he never misses his cue, also never forgetting to interact with all of his band members throughout the set, dancing with and stroking them accordingly – this man oozes classic musician charisma and he’s pretty funny too.

Acoustic guitarist Joey takes on the role of assistant lead man, confident and cheeky, he leads into the punchy jump-along Brother, arguably one of their strongest tracks and inciting the most well executed crowd surf I’ve ever seen. They take it down a notch into You Hold, a sad love song. It’s a beautiful track but feels a little out of place, especially since they then jump into their latest single Shoulder. This song is (‘scuse the pun) head and shoulders above a lot of their tracks, showcasing the talents of all of the members and their song writing abilities.

Concluding with an Encore and Trading Cards, overall, The Mispers provide it all for the crowd, from the hard-core fans to those that might have only heard a track or two. Having the violinist up front with great sound technicians made the whole show feel concise and professional. Their set list could have done with a little tweaking (I had my fingers crossed for Gold Dust the entire time), but they finished off their last show in London with finesse and style