Live
King Princess
02 Forum Kentish Town, London
June 26 2019
Words: Ali Mack
Mikaela Straus aka King Princess, American singer/songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and sassy performer, is for tonight at least, the new honorary queen of London. Returning to the capital a few days ahead of her Glastonbury Festival appearance, she is this time playing a much larger venue, after being upgraded from Heaven, and where even with the added capacity, unlucky ticketless fans are still being left outside for the sell-out show.
Playing with a full, all-female band, the Brooklyn-based artist has still to release her debut album - coming later this year via Mark Ronson's Zelig Records - yet her fanbase has propelled her to becoming the gay icon of the times, as evidenced by the preponderance of rainbow flags to be seen.
Starting with new interlude piece 'Useless Phrases', she theb veers into single release ‘Cheap Queen’, receiving huge cheers from a word-perfect crowd who join in with her as her soulful voice glides over glitchy beats. Followed by ‘Upper West Side’, where she secures a guitar around her neck for, she shows how adept she is in gracing the stage of this 2000+ venue; while the toned down ‘Prophet’ gives another taste of her aforementioned album, a raw ballad that suits her vocal style as much as the more exuberant numbers.
The flowing 'Trust Nobody' ("I don't really trust nobody / Think I'm cute and kinda funny / Guess it's fair / And I play dumb when you start talking / But one more night and I might fall for you"), debuted earlier this year live, is both honest and sentimental, while '1950', her breakout track from last year's EP, and the relationship ode, 'Pussy Is God', show her to be a new voice for queer-pop. For an encore she brings out Mark Ronson's ‘Pieces of Us’, the song on which she also sings. By the time the set concludes - on 'Ohio' - King Princess has become both.
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