Live Review: Mikal Cronin, Tiny Migrants, Lovely Legs

Lovely Legs are hampered early in the set by singer Alex Dunlop breaking not one but two guitar strings, which is not surprising considering the way he and guitarist Daniel Dunne have both been going at their guitars in this set of vicious earworm country-punk. They get back on track after some dark extended jams from the rest of the band. Broad Daylight is a highlight, introduced by a killer bass line in a set full of killer bass lines. 

Tiny Migrants are a member down, so with Jacinta Walker taking up bass duties leaving Julien James as the lone guitarist. This is a more ragged, sharper set from them than we're used to, but still packing the same snarly, garage punch. You might think being the only guitarist would stop James from going full tilt at the kind of manic, screeching guitar solos that are trademarks of a Tiny Migrants show, but nah, not particularly; thankfully he still manages to go pretty nuts. 

Mikal Cronin and his band arrive on stage all long hair and big smiles; exactly as charming and cool as you want San Francisco Bay Area melodic fuzz bands to be. The first couple of tracks bring older, heavier stuff, making it clear that no matter how pretty some of the songs on latest album, MCII, are, this is still gonna be a serious rock'n''roll show. Am I Wrong is the first of the pop hits, and goes over a treat with stomping drums and Cronin's sweet vocals tinged with both confidence and naiveté.

Being without a keyboard, an instrument that featured pretty heavily on MCII's quieter moments, takes some of the depth out of these songs, but the band keep pretty much to the rock stuff so it's not much of an issue. Plenty of bands do the loud/quiet, pretty vocals/harsh guitar thing, but few move between these dynamics as seamlessly as Cronin and his band, who are intuitive and impressively talented without ever being showy. By the time single, Weight, comes along halfway through the set the band have well and truly hit their stride, even inspiring terrible but well meaning singalongs from the audience. They follow up with Shout It Out, one of the angstier tracks on the record, a powerful double-header that creates some awesome momentum... For a couple of minutes, before the guitarist breaks a string and we all have to wait around for a replacement. This cuts the energy a bit for the rest of the set, but not by much, and by the time the last track comes around (a surprising but pretty spot-on cover of Wreckless Eric's Whole Wide World) both the band and the crowd are grinning again.