Live Review: Nothing, Nowhere - The Garage, London 24/10/2018
Nothing, Nowhere brought his unique blend of emo-rap to North London this month when he performed to a sold out crowd at The Garage.
Crossing the road from Highbury and Islington underground station to The Garage on Thursday, we were met by a queue that stretched as far as our eyes could see, whilst inside Joe Mulherin, better known by his stage name ‘Nothing, Nowhere’ was getting ready to headline a sold out show. Alongside him would be supports from emo SoundCloud rapper Sullii, and indie/alternative artist Lontalius. The night was set to be one filled with chilled, emo vibes filled with emotion and lyrical story telling, and it met these expectations completely.
Starting off the night, Josh Roger, lead singer of Crooks, hits the stage as ‘Sullii’ to show London his project for the first time. With only a few releases under his belt, Sullii still managed to create an amazing set as he moved around the stage singing songs such as ‘I D D U:’, ‘You’, ‘Grey’ and crowd favourite ‘Pallettown’. Roger’s delivered the tracks beautifully and had much of the crowd captured in awe. Unfortunately, this couldn’t be said for the whole crowd. It seems some fans arrived early to see Nothing, Nowhere but sadly disregarded both support artists and spoke the whole way through. This didn’t stop either of them putting on an amazing act though, and the people that did pay attention really looked to enjoy the artists on stage. For Sullii to be playing a sold out show after only starting earlier this year is huge and will most definitely give him the boost he deserves as an artist.
Eddie Johnston came on stage shortly after, to what has been an over half full room the entire night already. Going by the stage name Lontalius, Johnston comes all the way from New Zealand, whilst residing in Los Angeles. Johnston had a very humbling stage presence, and both artists so far seemed so humbled to be on such a tour. Yet again, we were met with super chilled vibes from songs such as ‘I Wanted Him’, ‘Optimistic’ and ‘All I Wanna Say’, which Johnston got some of the crowd singing along to. Starting off as an artist covering other peoples songs, Lontalius has grown as an artist in the past couple years and poured his heart into his work creating beautiful and relatable songs that he performed just as beautifully on stage. As mentioned, it was a shame there were still people talking at this point because his music is the sort that seems as though it would ordinarily have the room in silence unless they were singing along. His music is the sort that makes you want to sway slowly side to side, taking the lyrics in first and then the melodies after.
As Nothing, Nowhere came out, the whole room was filled and erupted in applause and screaming. After sadly having to cancel his last UK tour due to mental health issues, it was lovely to see such a supportive crowd for him. Opening with ‘Clarity in Kerosene’, everyone was singing along straight away, and did so for every song there after, including hits such as ‘hammer’, ‘Let Down’ and ‘I’m Sorry, I’m Trying’. Nothing, Nowheres’ songs all come across extremely personal, singing about his own mental health, the feeling of not being good enough, as well as singing about his experience as an artist. With his latest release ‘dread’, Mulherin sings about the feeling of dread and pain and suicidal thoughts. What makes this feel even more emotional in the packed out room is that he confronts cancelling his last tour through the lyrics, but you can see just how happy everyone is to have him on stage. Fans in the crowd were filled with passion for the music and Mulherin even came off stage on multiple occasions to sing along with them and interact with them to make everyone feel like part of the music. As he climbed on to the barriers between the stage and the crowd, every single person shouted in unison “I wanna know when the pain stops” whilst he played ‘dread’, and you could really see how much his lyrics resonated with members of the crowd.
Waiting for this tour was incredibly worth it for Nothing, Nowhere to tend to his mental health and for us to see him come back with such an incredible performance. This truly wasn’t a show to be missed and will be remembered by everyone in attendance due to the amount of energy and passion put into it. If you haven’t checked out the deeply personal songs of Nothing, Nowhere yet, we highly recommend that you do.
Words and Photography by Hayley Fearnley