Live Shows: Miki Berenyi Trio and Gina Birch, The Sinclair, Cambridge, MA 10/12/25

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Miki Berenyi
Photo by Ken Sears

If you've heard Miki Berenyi Trio's excellent 2025 album Tripla, then you already want to see them live. As soon as the band announced an October 12 show at The Sinclair in Cambridge, MA, I instantly made plans to attend. Once it was announced that this would most likely be their final US tour, I knew nothing, not even a deluge from a nor'easter, would stop me.

Taking the stage in a two guitars, one bass, and programmed drums formation, Miki Berenyi Trio played mostly from the just released Tripla. Live their songs had a slightly adjusted sound, with most alternating between dream pop and shoegaze, and others creating an almost dance party friendly version of shoegaze. The more mellow songs had just a slightly enhanced pep to them, and they were all even more lovely live. Miki Berenyi has been performing since the late 80's, and she commanded the stage. She's one of those performers you simply can't stop watching, whether she's bopping across the stage or standing still and creating a wall of shoegaze noise.

Miki Berenyi Trio
Photo by Ken Sears

The big question I had was if they were going to play any Lush songs. I was lucky enough to see Lush once back in 1996, but it was at the WBCN River Rave, which is a less than ideal place to see a band like Lush. They broke out six songs from Berenyi's previous band, including a very reworked "Ladykillers," their big US hit. It was a thrill for me, as I also didn't fully appreciate seeing such a legendary band during their peak. Let's hope Berenyi does end up winning the lottery so she can return to the US for more tours.

Gina Birch
Photo by Ken Sears

Gina Birch opened the show. The former Raincoat was originally supposed to be performing with her band The Unreasonables, but they had to stay back in London due to visa issues. She performed with a laptop taking the place of her band. She mentioned that her set would be "bespoke," and it had the feeling of being a very special set. Any artist that typically plays analog is going to have some mishaps with a laptop being integrated, but the audience wasn't lost during these and it seemed to add more to the set than detracted. We were simply thrilled to be able to watch a legend play under such unique circumstances. 

On Repeat...

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