Music / Review
Review: Men I Trust, SWX – ‘The whole show is gorgeously cosy’
Waiting for Men I Trust, I lose count of how many memes I get airdropped. Some are even on theme – a highlight is ‘Men I Trust? Nah, I only trust women’.
The band are just as playful; lead singer Emmanuelle Proulx spends most of the gig giggling behind the mic, while her bandmates play with a light-hearted whimsy.
The show is sold out, likely off the back of their old hit Show Me How re-emerging on TikTok. But, reassuringly, the crowd seem to actually be here for their other songs too.
Sugar, taken from their latest album, sounds especially sweet – Proulx’s twinkling vocals shine, and bassist Jessy Caron improvises an impressive guitar solo at the end.
He does this quite a lot throughout the set, and can barely finish his groovy flourishes before our cheers drown them out.
The whole show is gorgeously cosy. The dream-pop Canadian dreamers bundle us up in sonic fuzzy jumpers and corduroy, and pull us through the biblical drizzle that’s been flooding Bristol lately.
Billie Toppy is another highlight – leaning into the heavier side of their oeuvre, the guitar is more biting, Proulx’s voice sharper. A few small mosh pits break out, but they’re ironically still very wholesome.
We also earn a new, title-less song, as dreamy and soft as ever, the crowd holding up phone torches and actual lighters, until security tells them to put them down.
Quieter, bedroom pop-py bands can sometimes be boring to see live, but Men I Trust are just as magnetic in the flesh.
We hang on every one of Emma’s whispers, and hang on tighter onto every guitar pluck – the crowd even comically singing along to the funky bow-wow of the bass.
Men I Trust don’t need to shout loudly to be heard – everyone is listening.
Main photo: Mia Smith
Read next:
- Review: Amanda Shires, The Exchange – ‘This is country music with thorns’
- Review: King Krule, Marble Factory – ‘A moment of mutual adoration between artists and fan’
- Review: Steve Earle, St George’s – ‘The voice of a fallen angel in a room full of ecstasy’
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