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What You Missed: MICHELLE at High Noon Saloon

On Thursday night, we stopped by High Noon Saloon to check out six-person group, MICHELLE. For indie-pop fans, it was the show to be at, with the collective bringing full choreography and cheese jokes interlaced into their animated discography.

On High Noon Saloon's tiny stage, there's not a lot of room for six moving bodies. MICHELLE, however, make it work, with their four primary singers (Layla Ku, Emma Lee, Sofia D'Angelo and Jamee Lockard) pulling out coordinated dance moves from the first song into the last. Even their outfits are harmonious while allowing for personalization all the while. The group obviously takes a lot of pride in their outfit game, regularly posting TikTok's to show off their creativity.

It's clear online and on stage that the group are Gen-Zers; their music doubles down on the theory, with obvious 2000s influences mixed into bedroom pop. Fans of MICHELLE might also have Claud, Clairo or Rex Orange County on their playlists, although it's hard to compare the six-person powerhouse with soloists. In many ways, they work as one unit: they move together, harmonize together, and in their discography, it's sometimes hard to pick out voices from each other. If there's a ringleader to the group, I can't figure out who it is. Sofia and Jamee might be the most talkative of them, but their instrumentalists, Julian Kaufman and Charlie Kilgore are obviously crowd favorites. Someone in the balcony has decided that Julian is his favorite, regularly shouting for him throughout the show.

The crowd somewhat mirrors the members on stage--this is obviously a college-age show. Luckily there aren't many kids in the pit.

One of the highlights of the show happens about halfway through the set. One of the members of MICHELLE begins setting a scene, prompting us to think back to the days where Tamagotchis and flip phones were the more important things in our lives. We're then pulled into an apocalyptic scene as the backing track begins, because even though "END OF THE WORLD" is a true pop song, the lyrics have an NSFW ask as the world crumbles. It's one of the most fun (and funny) songs of the night, which the group leans into. The song ends with a New Years Eve style countdown, which the four front members eagerly yell before collapsing to the ground, indicating the title of the song has come true.

There's something especially intimate and interactive about seeing MICHELLE in High Noon Saloon, which fits about 400. But I can only imagine that the group could comfortably take over a much, much bigger stage one day.


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