Oklahoma born, McKenzie Ashton Ellis (aka MOTHICA), brought her blend of dark-pop, electronica and rock to a packed-out O2 Academy Islington, lighting up the stage with her emotionally delivered songs about the intricacies of trauma and recovery.
She many songs from her recent album Kissing Death, which explores the nature of suicidal ideation, life and death, including ‘Afterlife’, ‘Exit Plan’ and ‘The Reaper’, with lyrics such as
But how do you live when you don’t wanna die anymore?
MOTHICA also played a new version of old favourite, 2020’s ‘VICES’ to rapturous applause and threw in an emotionally charged cover of ‘Can You Feel My Heart’ by Bring Me The Horizon, complete with distorted guitars and furious drumming.
Throughout the evening, there were frequent mentions of her love for the UK and London, (including Taskmaster!) which was reinforced by the fact that her first headline show after an 8-month rehab break was in London. She shared that it was a full circle moment for her as she came back to the place where she realised that she needed to take care of herself.
A personal stand-out moment for me was the song ‘forever fifteen’, which deals with her suicide attempt at the age of fifteen. As her voice shook whilst introducing the song, you could feel the emotion in every word she sang, and so too did the audience as they hugged each other just a little more tightly.
There was another beautiful moment after ‘The Reaper’, when she brought out a cake for opener Nxdia and the whole crowd were united in a ‘Happy Birthday’ singalong for them.
The love-in with the audience was very real, with frequent humorous asides about her particular struggles over the last few months, including an attempt to give up music and do stand-up comedy instead, but luckily for us it did not pan out, and she wrote a new album instead.
Just before playing the last song, ‘Sensitive’, MOTHICA reminded us that it was our fragilities that were our real superpowers, before launching into the alt-rock masterpiece and left us all wanting more.
I came with open ears and left a fully converted Mothling.
Manchester raised, Egyptian-Sudanese singer-songwriter Nxdia bounded onto stage with the infectious enthusiasm of someone who was celebrating their birthday week and feeling all the love.
Opener ‘OUCH’ showcased their genre-blending style of bold alt-pop, with a nod to 80s synthwave, whilst second song ‘Jennifer’s Body’ showcased their playful but dangerous rock edge.
Their exuberant set included more alt-pop anthems such as ‘Boy Clothes‘ and ‘Feel Anything’ from their breakthrough recently released debut mixtape, I Promise No One’s Watching. Current single and queer anthem ‘More!’, with its riff-tastic intro and lyrics exploring the first flushes of intoxicating love, was next and another firm audience favourite.
Ending with ‘She Likes a Boy’, with even more audience sing-alongs, Nxdia left the stage with the same energy albeit with additional raucous applause.
Watch out world, Nxdia’s star is on the rise!
Upcoming live dates:
20 June – Metronome Festival – Prague
21 June – BludFest, Milton Keynes
13 July – TRNSMT Festival – Glasgow
26 July – Latitude Festival – Henham Park, Suffolk
2 Aug – Dork’s Day Out – Signature Brewery, London
3 Aug – Brighton Pride – Brighton
12 Aug – Sofia Isella Support – Frannz Club, Berlin
13 Aug – Sofia Isella Support – Club Volta, Cologne
19 Aug – Sofia Isella Support – Paradiso Tollhuisten, Amsterdam
26 Aug – Sofia Isella Support – Village Underground, London
27 Aug – Sofia Isella Support – Gorilla, Manchester
28 Aug – Sofia Isella Support – St Luke’s, Glasgow
15 Nov – Live at Leeds In The City – Leeds
Follow MOTHICA on website | instagram | tiktok | youtube | facebook
Follow Nxdia on website | instagram | tiktok | youtube