Matt Berninger last performed in London just a few months ago. But a lot’s changed since then. When he played an intimate set at Union Chapel in April, the singer was accompanied by just keys, guitar, and the vocals of support act Ronboy. His second solo album wasn’t even out yet. Now he’s back, bigger and even better: at Troxy, with a full band and the recently released record Get Sunk in tow.
Matt Berninger @ Troxy
Ronboy’s back too, on keyboards and vocals during Berninger’s set and as show opener. During her 30-minute slot, the musician born Julia Laws showcases the full range of her work, from the emotional vulnerability of tender piano ballad Your Way to the ethereal, synth-driven Oceans Of Emotion with its sudden, emotionally fraught outbursts that point to the heavier sound of her most recent singles. These end the set on an intense high: the ominous Disaster (which sees Berninger come out to perform his largely spoken parts) is all droning bassline, buzzing guitar, feverish drumming, and Laws repeating “I’m a disaster”; the scuzzy Get Rich Fix is Ronboy at her most unashamedly confident and unfiltered.
Berninger starts his set a little more quietly, with the gorgeous No Love, the first of 10 Get Sunk tracks aired tonight. It’s followed by the equally elegant Frozen Oranges, one of several songs on the album set in Indiana in the 1980s, shares the singer, before revealing that oranges don’t actually grow there. Such typically dry, deadpan commentary continues throughout the evening and only helps make this sold-out 3000-capacity venue feel more intimate. After fronting The National for more than two decades, he knows that being personable, conversational, and truthful makes a connection with audiences of any size.
So between a running joke about Fleetwood Mac cover versions, we get admissions like the part-spoken, part-shouted, part-sung, completely desperate (and fantastic) Nowhere Special being several sub-par songs “squished together”. Before the defeat and beauty of Little By Little, we get a heartfelt shoutout to its co-writer and Berninger’s lifelong friend Mike Brewer, in the audience tonight with his family. After a slightly convoluted explanation of Junk (something like: we’re all just stuff, a combination of stuff that happens to be able to write songs or tell jokes, but we’re also not just stuff), there’s a grinned “I didn’t explain that very well.” And after playing some harmonica on a wistful Distant Axis, from debut solo album Serpentine Prison, the singer declares with mock bravado: “I’ve been taking up instruments. Instruments are easy.”
Also unchanged from the day job is the degree of animation and vigour with which he performs, as if trying to reach the back rows of an arena. Physically he’s all about acting out lyrics, pointing, hitting his head, tugging at his collar, slow-motion running, Nick Cave-style preacher gestures, leaning forward or crouching into the weightier lyrics. And vocally, he does exactly what each song demands: crooning and confessional restraint on the Ronboy duets Silver Springs and Silver Jeep; unhinged intensity during the crescendos of The National’s Terrible Lie (“It takes an ocean not to break!”) and tonight’s standout Bonnet Of Pins (“I know that you miss me!”)
As the jacket comes off, the night ends with a celebratory Blue Monday — the New Order classic gleefully interpreted by Berninger and his band — and Get Sunk opener (and Indiana-referencing) Inland Ocean, which starts out as a tranquil duet and swells into a wave of transcendence that washes over the audience.
Live review of Matt Berninger at Troxy, London on 27th August 2025 by Nils van der Linden. Photos by Abigail Shii.
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