One-line gig reviews for May 2026

In this month’s round-up: Why sitting in the front row for Milton Jones is a high-risk health hazard, the unexpected joy of reconnecting with Super Furry Animals in a brutally sweltering O2 Academy Brixton, and how a post-pub wait for an Uber with my partner in Gosport left me wishing we’d gone inside to catch an unknown 90s alt-rock covers band.

Ninush, The Lexington, Islington, 6 May – A quite nervous singer-songwriter with a great voice, and very textured backing including flute, cello etc. Worth checking out.

Modern Woman, The Lexington, Islington, 6 May – Brasher and louder than I remember, Sophie claimed her voice was going and then was absolutely flawless with her incredible range. Frantic version of Achtung but sadly Ford seems to have been memory-holed.

Matt Green, Red Imp comedy club at YORAC, Walthamstow, 7 May – Is this the first time I have seen someone who had a cameo role in Doctor Who doing stand-up in Walthamstow? It is a niche claim to fame, but it belongs to Matt, who I enjoyed very much.

Milton Jones, Red Imp comedy club at YORAC, Walthamstow, 7 May – Awkward, isn’t it… when you are sitting in the front row of a comedy show and nearly give yourself an aneurysm laughing at Jones’ relentless barrage of surreal one-liners.

[Picture caption: Matt Green (L) and Milton Jones]

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Honeyglaze, O2 Academy, Brixton, 22 May – When I first arrived they were quite shoegazey and then I went on a long quest for draught lager and came back and they had morphed into something spikier, reminding me of Wolf Alice and Modern Woman. I approved.

Super Furry Animals, O2 Academy, Brixton, 22 May – I first got exposed to SFA when The Chart Show relentlessly played the video for If You Don’t Want Me To Destroy You, saw them live a billion times and over-played their records to the point where I stopped listening to them. This was a superb show, great set, and a delight to reconnect with a real favourite after a self-imposed hiatus on both sides. Fuck me it was hot though.

Also I can’t quite work out the chronology, but as the opening samples hit, it suddenly came back to me that I feel sure there were a couple of times I saw them play Slow Life before it was released and I couldn’t work out the lyrics – “Rocks are stolen”?, “Rock star solo”? – neither implausible for SFA.

Unknown band, 33 Green Bottles, Gosport, 29 May – I was waiting with my other half to get an Uber back to the hotel after a night out in Gosport and there was a band here doing covers of 90s/early 2000s alt-rock/skinny-indie-guitar boys and I wish we’d gone in and checked them out!

Find all of my one-line gig reviews here. Last time out I wrote about snagging a last-minute ticket on Twickets to see Pet Shop Boys play an emotive but claustrophobic Camden archive set, failing to learn my lesson about earplugs right at the front for Haircut 100 (pictured below), and a trek to the gents at Manchester’s Albert Hall that felt like being Danny Torrance in the corridors of the Overlook Hotel.

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