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.
is needed now More than ever
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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