Live reviews
Review
G Flip at KOKO, 24/01/24
The Australian musician dazzles at their first of three London shows... and plays
If effortless cool exists, it’s onstage at KOKO tonight. Because there is something incredibly, effortlessly cool about opening your pop show with a lyric-less drum solo and then launching into your list of house rules. G Flip delivers these rules in the manner of a cool older sibling who wants us all to have fun, but in a safe way. “House rule number one,” they announce. “Don’t be a dickhead.” We go from there.
By the time you make it to Camden’s KOKO, to describe your fanbase as loving feels a little obvious. G’s crowd isn’t loving so much as absolutely head over heels in love – some of them with each other, but mostly with G. From the moment the Australian musician launches into fast-paced pop punk opener ‘7 Days’, there is a feeling of reverence from their audience. A nonbinary pop artist playing a big London venue is not an everyday occurrence. It’s only slightly more common – and still comparatively rare – to see a queer artist openly showing love for their partner on the stage of such a venue. (At one point G asks the audience to name their favourite Selling Sunset cast member, referencing their reality TV star wife). For many in the audience, this is a particularly special live show.
A multi-instrumentalist, G switches throughout the night between sitting at the drum kit and running up and down the front of the stage with the mic, and at one point picking up an electric guitar for a solo, all whilst remaining on powerful lead vocal. Their versality is best demonstrated by their encore cover of Taylor Swift’s ‘Cruel Summer’, a gender-flipped version of the track that sees G belting out the final chorus and outro over their own energetic drumming. This is the cover that sent G viral on social media and inspired their mother to start a petition for G to open on the Australian leg of the Eras tour. The petition has since been signed by over 16,000 fans. G apparently thinks this whole thing is very funny.
Despite the serious talent on show, there is a happy irreverence to G as a performer. We are able to move from big emotive vocals in songs like ‘Good Enough’ and the hugely popular ‘Be Your Man’ to a mashup of G’s song ‘Gay 4 Me’ with Ginuwine’s ‘My Pony’ – this last closes the show, the crowd putting both lungs into it. The first of G’s three back to back shows at KOKO is a celebration, and it’s an incredibly deserved one.
