Video: Margot & TNSS’s
I have to say that after interviewing Richard Edwards, the lead singer of Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos, I was expecting his nonchalance (verging on the drugged out) to lend itself to a pretty low-energy live set. Instead I got a solid performance, sonically charged and inevitably a little depressing lyrically. Even more surprisingly, I got a few fist pumping bros who knew all of the words to every song. Who knew that Margot and the Nuclear So and Sos had such a dedicated fan base on the Jersey Shore?
Not all of those present were quite so committed to the band – I overheard one guy asking his friends which of the band members “Margot” was – but in general the crowd seemed to be enjoying Edwards’s high-strung vocals and the bands eclectic combination of smoother melodies (at one point inducing a surprisingly well executed slow-dance) and bro-jumping jams.
Margot pulled heavily from their newest release, Buzzard, with an especially note-worthy performance of “Birds,” but also mixed in a few classics from Animal and even The Dust of Retreat. The Black Cat with its dark and dingy mystique, reminiscent of Bruce Wayne’s workshop in Batman Begins, ended up being an ideal match for Margot’s ominous guitar riffs and gloomy lyricism, and I left feeling fully satisfied, if rather confused, by my unexpectedly intriguing concert-going experience. Although now, in hindsight, I don’t know why I expected anything less the sundry crowd that matched so perfectly with Margot’s distinctive chamber-pop meets Kurt Cobain eclecticisms.
Camera: Charlotte Japp
Interview and Edits: Dan Stokes
solid review of the show–you have elucidated a lot for me about what was going on at that performance, and i was there! the crowd was thoroughly obsessed with MATNSS and with the dark emotion emanating from frontman richard edwards, i can understand how that resulted. I felt bad for the guy who’s giddy girlfriend gratefully got a photo with edwards before their set…
The opening band the lonely forest was also very good!
dude does drugs.
Yeah, “verging on the drugged out” was generous