MS MR At The Troubadour: Review
But it's hard to imagine Lizzie Plapinger, the "Ms." of MS MR, with normal-colored hair. Her beautiful, smoky voice already gives her an otherworldly quality, a sentiment echoed by the eclectic underscoring provided by producer Max Hershenow ("Mr.").
When MS MR takes the stage, they send out an undeniable aura of coolness. Maybe it's Plapinger's percussive dancing, or the calming chord progression of songs like "BTSK," or maybe it's just that the blue light that washes over the stage for the majority of the concert, but Plapinger and Hershenow give off the vibe that they're tuned into some big secret about the world that the rest of us have yet to figure out.
Watching Plapinger smile fondly while singing "Dark Doo Wop," crooning, "That's my / that's my man… baby you should stick around," the audience finds themselves intoxicated by the heady power of love. Likewise, during MS MR's cover of LCD Soundsystem's "Dance Yrself Clean," the bitter edge when she sings "Talking like a jerk / except you are an actual jerk / and living proof / that sometimes friends are mean," hits a little too close to home, in a cathartic way.
Everything comes to a head when MS MR performs "Hurricane," their most popular song, and the show's closing number. As they proclaim, "welcome to the inner workings of my mind / so dark and foul I can't describe," the audience can't help but feel a little less alone in the world. It's reassuring to know that everyone else is just as weird as you are, and sharing that bond with hundreds of strangers is an exhilarating experience.
Read more of NT's show reviews here.