There was an exceptional layer of fog hanging over Toronto when Holly Humberstone came to town. It was nearly that bad British weather on the one day she'd made plans, especially when technical difficulties compounded at the beginning of the set, Humberstone having accidentally swapped packs with her drummer. But the unseasonably warm November air and the vanilla glow of streetlights created a palpable lustre amid the ominousness.
Perhaps it was also the excitement of the sold-out crowd at Axis Club, eagerly trying to unstick their feet from the floor, craning to see over the person in front of them as Humberstone took the stage for her first headlining show in Canada. It was all much to the Grantham, UK-hailing singer-songwriter's surprise; she explained that she grew up in an old house in the countryside with her three sisters and several cats. "I didn't know if I'd ever be able to tour these songs when I was in lockdown," Humberstone admitted.
After opening for Olivia Rodrigo at Massey Hall back in April, Humberstone's first time headlining a Toronto show precedes a debut album. She released her first EP, Falling Asleep at the Wheel, in 2020, followed by The Walls Are Way Too Thin in 2021. Though it's all been through a pandemic, the artist has managed to develop a sizeable, passionate fanbase from across the pond.
And she didn't disappoint them: there were moments in the set, like stripped-back piano ballad "Haunted House," where you could have heard a pin drop. Meanwhile "Scarlett" — a breathless kiss-off to her titular friend's ex — had people shouting the second verse, which feels plucked directly from a narcissist's text message bubbles, at the top of their lungs.
How rapt the crowd was probably stems largely from Humberstone's songs being neatly folded, shimmering foils for the anxiety and isolation of growing up. With their brooding, billowy harmonies and the singer-songwriter's tender, near-trembling delivery, they feel like personally-addressed handwritten notes from a friend who's going through something similar. They meet the moment with ease, especially when the show happens to be on a Thursday.
"I find conversations so awkward," Humberstone babbled, adding: "I'm really awkward, if you guys can't tell that yet." The self-deprecating repetition came as she introduced "Deep End" — her first-ever single and a heartrending, reverb-drenched ode to her sister's mental health struggles. She needn't articulate it conversationally when she already nailed the plight of loving someone (including oneself!) grappling with their mental health in song. "Sister, I'm trying to hold off the lightning / And help you escape from your head," Humberstone promised, while seemingly knowing the futility of it.
That sense of quiet confidence was something she brought to her stage performance, despite her feelings of awkwardness. Accompanied solely by a drummer, Humberstone pulled her own weight and then some, switching off between guitars, keyboard, synths and a station loaded up with loops. Much like her recordings, every layer of sound felt curated for tension and release, somehow managing to pile up like organic thoughts in progress.
"It's cheesy, but it's just the best feeling," Humberstone effused after playing the effervescent "Sleep Tight," with its winking electronic flourishes and 808s. That's exactly the levitating effect of that chorus, written with the 1975's Matty Healy, masterfully threaded with varying degrees of lightness throughout its gloomy atmosphere.
This is the universe Humberstone's music occupies: a plane of existence similar to our own, but where the expression of any feeling or fluctuation in mood is validated. Waking up to grey skies is almost expected, as are the end of relationships and the growing pains of figuring out who you are in the world — as well as realizing that, now, you can do this cool shit you couldn't do when you were eight.
There's something special about Humberstone. While there's no shortage of sad girl pop music out there (thank god), there's a quicksilver timelessness to her songcraft — despite timely references to the Upside Down and WebMD. Humberstone sings with a lump in her throat that often provokes a matching tightness in your own, her songs becoming your own when you sing them. She makes you, in all of your excess, feel seen.
"How am I supposed to be your ray of light, your ray of light?" she asked atop the spindly architecture of "Falling Asleep at the Wheel." Double tracking her voice, she quickly added, almost mockingly, "Not a cloud in sight / What a perfect night."
But it earnestly was.
Perhaps it was also the excitement of the sold-out crowd at Axis Club, eagerly trying to unstick their feet from the floor, craning to see over the person in front of them as Humberstone took the stage for her first headlining show in Canada. It was all much to the Grantham, UK-hailing singer-songwriter's surprise; she explained that she grew up in an old house in the countryside with her three sisters and several cats. "I didn't know if I'd ever be able to tour these songs when I was in lockdown," Humberstone admitted.
After opening for Olivia Rodrigo at Massey Hall back in April, Humberstone's first time headlining a Toronto show precedes a debut album. She released her first EP, Falling Asleep at the Wheel, in 2020, followed by The Walls Are Way Too Thin in 2021. Though it's all been through a pandemic, the artist has managed to develop a sizeable, passionate fanbase from across the pond.
And she didn't disappoint them: there were moments in the set, like stripped-back piano ballad "Haunted House," where you could have heard a pin drop. Meanwhile "Scarlett" — a breathless kiss-off to her titular friend's ex — had people shouting the second verse, which feels plucked directly from a narcissist's text message bubbles, at the top of their lungs.
How rapt the crowd was probably stems largely from Humberstone's songs being neatly folded, shimmering foils for the anxiety and isolation of growing up. With their brooding, billowy harmonies and the singer-songwriter's tender, near-trembling delivery, they feel like personally-addressed handwritten notes from a friend who's going through something similar. They meet the moment with ease, especially when the show happens to be on a Thursday.
"I find conversations so awkward," Humberstone babbled, adding: "I'm really awkward, if you guys can't tell that yet." The self-deprecating repetition came as she introduced "Deep End" — her first-ever single and a heartrending, reverb-drenched ode to her sister's mental health struggles. She needn't articulate it conversationally when she already nailed the plight of loving someone (including oneself!) grappling with their mental health in song. "Sister, I'm trying to hold off the lightning / And help you escape from your head," Humberstone promised, while seemingly knowing the futility of it.
That sense of quiet confidence was something she brought to her stage performance, despite her feelings of awkwardness. Accompanied solely by a drummer, Humberstone pulled her own weight and then some, switching off between guitars, keyboard, synths and a station loaded up with loops. Much like her recordings, every layer of sound felt curated for tension and release, somehow managing to pile up like organic thoughts in progress.
"It's cheesy, but it's just the best feeling," Humberstone effused after playing the effervescent "Sleep Tight," with its winking electronic flourishes and 808s. That's exactly the levitating effect of that chorus, written with the 1975's Matty Healy, masterfully threaded with varying degrees of lightness throughout its gloomy atmosphere.
This is the universe Humberstone's music occupies: a plane of existence similar to our own, but where the expression of any feeling or fluctuation in mood is validated. Waking up to grey skies is almost expected, as are the end of relationships and the growing pains of figuring out who you are in the world — as well as realizing that, now, you can do this cool shit you couldn't do when you were eight.
There's something special about Humberstone. While there's no shortage of sad girl pop music out there (thank god), there's a quicksilver timelessness to her songcraft — despite timely references to the Upside Down and WebMD. Humberstone sings with a lump in her throat that often provokes a matching tightness in your own, her songs becoming your own when you sing them. She makes you, in all of your excess, feel seen.
"How am I supposed to be your ray of light, your ray of light?" she asked atop the spindly architecture of "Falling Asleep at the Wheel." Double tracking her voice, she quickly added, almost mockingly, "Not a cloud in sight / What a perfect night."
But it earnestly was.
