boygenius @ gunnersbury park
London. August 20th, 2023. Gunnersbury Park. Satanist Convention.
After months of gloomy, grim, and downright depressing weather in the UK the sun finally emerged from its premature hibernation – and just in time for boygenius debut headline show in the UK, supported by SOAK, Ethel Cain, and MUNA.
These artists transformed Gunnersbury Park into a queer safe haven, without even knowing it. All around me I seen celebrations of queer love, people able to unapologetically be themselves without looking over their shoulders. As amazing as this was, I seen a lot of hateful talk online from young fans who seemed to think that it was appropriate to hate on heterosexual fans, hetero-presenting couples, and generally men – this bothered me. As well as people seriously commenting that boygenius gigs are exclusively for lesbians, do I have to remind you that two out of three members of boygenius are bisexual? Please take your animosity and immaturity away, and let people fucking like what they like!
SOAK captivated the audience with their self-aware lyricism mixed with the visual of them standing alone with a guitar, singing to a whopping 25,000 people – sometimes grinning, and constantly thanking their biggest audience yet. Hailing from Derry in Northern Ireland, SOAK is an inspiration to anybody who feels like they are stuck in a small town, and an example of the fact that somebody is always listening, somewhere. ‘B a noBody’ was one of my personal favourites of the set, such a candid exploration into adolescence and the challenges which come with finding your identity.
Ethel Cain has somewhat of a cult following of her own, also known as the ‘Daughters of Cain’ – and this was apparent when she walked out on stage, holding the audience in a chokehold for the next 45 minutes. If you weren’t already a fan of Cain before her performance, you were by the end of it. There is something so intoxicating about the way she performs – walking off the stage, down the stairs to the barrier, serenading her fans and sharing a moment with them that they certainly will never forget. Standouts of Cain’s set were ‘American Teenager’ and ‘Crush’ – with a special shoutout to ‘A House In Nebraska’ which she opened the set with, grinning as more than 20,000 people sang it back to her.
As soon as Ethel Cain’s set was finished, I was beelining for the toilet, and apparently so was everyone else – the queue was one of the longest I’ve ever encountered. However, when nature calls… so I waited, and the queer panic started to set in. Was I going to miss MUNA? Trick question, of course I wasn’t. I am not a runner, but I sure got that ‘Runner’s High’ (pun intended) when I had two minutes to spare and a lot of ground to cover to get back to the crowd for the beginning of their set. MUNA opened with ‘What I Want’ which was exactly what I wanted – their stage presence is insane, and akin to boygenius it is apparent how well the bandmates get along. MUNA did not disappoint, preaching self-love, confidence, and knowing your worth. Their set was 10/10, such an incredible selection of songs including ‘Number One Fan’, ‘Solid’, ‘I Know A Place’, and the earth shattering ‘Silk Chiffon’ performance in which Phoebe Bridgers emerged topless for her feature and my respect for her skyrocketed – say no to misogyny!
After a day of sweltering weather, the sun began to set, and the cool night breeze was amongst Gunnersbury Park. The trees backstage were lit up an ominous red, delusional maybe but I couldn’t help but feel like it was a reference to Bridger’s sophomore album ‘Punisher’ – intentional or not, I appreciated it. Just after ten past eight, ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’ by Thin Lizzy blared over the chatter, to let us know that the boys were ready to rock – when the song was over the trio opened with ‘Without You Without Them’ from backstage and right on cue burst into ‘$20’ sprinting onto the stage to perform for their biggest crowd yet. It was enthralling, you could feel it in the air; the awe of the audience, and the mutual respect between the three of them and the 25,000 of us. Their friendship is apparent, and their banter between songs makes the show feel intimate and personal. Before ‘Cool About It’, Bridgers joked about a papercut she had “a papercut so it's really brave of me to be here” and the crowd laughed for a moment before falling into a pit of depression because the song which followed the joke tore all our hearts out, stomped on them, and then stomped on them a bit more with every verse, chorus, verse. Both the ‘boygenius’ and ‘The Record’ were played in their entirety, and the three’s ‘sister songs’ I suppose you could refer to them as were played as well (songs from their own discography’s which they featured on with each other). ‘Stay Down’ and ‘Favor’ were standouts from the set for me, two of my favourite songs which I was grateful to have seen live. When they broke into ‘Not Strong Enough’ it was bittersweet, the night was ending but the whole park was on cloud nine, while they sang every word to us, we sang every word right back to them. Don’t be fooled though, encore, encore, encore! They were back, and just when it felt like the night couldn’t get any better… fireworks filled the night sky with colour during ‘Salt In The Wound’ with a feature from MUNA.
What a fucking awesome show.
