Lizzie Esau

Lizzie Esau hit the stage at the SWG3 Poetry Club, just the setting for a rising indie-rock act to fully flex their sound, with a confidence that belied her still-emerging profile, her band tight and clearly well-rehearsed.

From the first track, the energy was palpable: guitars with a shimmering edge, drums crisp, and Esau’s vocals carrying both a delicacy and an edge that kept the audience hooked. She drew from her influences—mentions of Wolf?Alice and Radiohead echo in her sound—but there’s something entirely her own in the way she melds lyrical introspection with dynamic indie rock grooves.

Highlights of the set included new material like “Die 4”, recent single “Bugs” and her more familiar numbers such as “The Enemy” and notably the track where the audience sang along to the refrain (“Bleak sublime, I’m going till I feel alive…”) which felt like a moment when the band and the crowd locked in together.

The pacing of the show was strong: after a rousing opener, she slowed things slightly to let some more emotional lyrics land — the quieter moments had real weight, especially when the band pulled back and the focus was purely on her voice and lyrics. Those moments then fed into bigger dynamic climaxes, guitars rising, drums building, crowd responding. It felt like a well-constructed live set, not just a run-through of songs.

Visually and atmospherically, the venue helped. The Poetry Club isn’t enormous, and that intimacy meant you felt close to the performer, which made her stage-presence more immediate. She moved around the stage, occasionally jumping in and joining the crowd. The sound mix was clean and clear – nothing overly gimmicky, just the raw strength of songs delivered live.

One slight caveat: for a venue of that size, there was the sense sometimes that the band could have pushed the volume or sonic risk a bit more without losing anything. That said, when they did push (as in the latter half of the set), the payoff was gratifying.

In terms of audience reaction: the crowd warmed visibly through the set. Early on people were attentive, nodding and getting into it; by the final third, you could sense genuine enthusiasm and connection—with people singing along, hands in the air, culminating in a touching phone torches waved in the air and the general sense that this wasn’t just another gig, but a moment of shared momentum.

By the time the main set ended and the acclaimed encore done , Lizzie left the stage to real applause. It’s clear she has the material and the stagecraft to build something meaningful. She may not yet be headlining larger stages, but at this show she proved she could.

Verdict: A terrific performance from a rising talent. If you’re into guitar-driven indie rock with emotional depth and strong live delivery, Lizzie?Esau is absolutely worth catching. Tonight she showed why she’s on the radar of tastemakers and why her next phase could see her stepping up significantly.