Smerz are great

The whiff of 90s/00s revivalism in culture today is overbearing. Did Vegyn need to whack a load of trip-hop sample pack drums over the entirety of Air’s ‘Moon Safari’? Do Gen Z kids need to wear those jeans? Does the cafe I’m writing this from need to play ‘At the River’ by Groove Amada in 2025?

When Smerz’s released their second album proper, ‘Big city life’, back in May, I’d enjoyed the singles, but filed it away under the banner of more mid-90s regurgitation. The strings on ‘You got time and I got money’ are more than a bit ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ and the general ‘All Saints meets The Knife’ vibe of most of the other tracks was hard to get past.

But having seen them play Bristol’s ‘Simple Things’ festival a couple of weekends ago, I now totally get it. I can’t stop thinking about how good they were.

There’s very little point in writing gushing music reviews on a blog nobody reads, however the degree to which their live show was well thought out and fully realised felt rare.

Catharina Stoltenberg and Henriette Motzfeldt were backed by a bassist who looked alarmingly like Julian Clary and a drummer who insisted on hitting his kit very hard wearing a thick hoodie (with the hood up.) They shifted between mics at the front of the stage and others at the rear where their gear was set up, depending on who was singing lead. There was a fan pointing up from the floor gently blowing their hair as they performed. The whole thing was simple, unstated and very chic.

The Quietus’ review of ‘Big city life’ describes it (half-disparagingly) as “the musical equivalent of shrugging while making eye contact.” This is how they come across live, but it’s a joy to behold. Deeply unaffected and the coolest people in the room. Perfection.

I didn’t take any photos or videos because I’m not a psycho, but here’s fan video of a performance from Helsinki that captures the vibe: