Live Review: Nell Mescal

The Fleece, Bristol - 11/11/2025

The ability to make me cry on a random Tuesday must be a Mescal thing. 

There’s a storm incoming; the rain outside making the trek outside unappealing in the November darkness. However, a broken umbrella, and a shoeful of rainwater was completely worth it for the beautiful sonics Nell Mescal brings to the stage. 

Opening the night is Gracie Friel, who accompanied by only her guitar, delivers gentle, atmospheric songs about being at uni in Bristol, and the trials and tribulations of being a woman in her early twenties. It’s wholly relatable and her vocals are stunning, perfectly setting the night up.

Next up is Cece Coakley, one of Nell’s best friends, who is playing in Bristol for the first time tonight. Similarly, only she graces the stage, her acoustic guitar and charisma enough to engage the crowd and get them fully warmed up, whilst retaining the same feeling of intimacy that the night holds. 

Her first song, Bonus, tells the story of the best day ever, Coakley expressing how she hopes everyone in the crowd can relate tonight, whilst elsewhere in the set, she sings about dumping a guy who smoked too much, and tells stories of how she wrote a song after dropping out of school to prove to her parents she was a real rock-star, before having to move back in with them. The crowd cheers when she announces she’s moved out again, the whole set captivating. To close the half an hour set, she asks for the crowd to sing along with her for the chorus of Halfway, to which everyone does. 

The crowd successfully warmed up, fairy lights are wrapped around the microphone stands ready for when Nell Mescal and her four-piece band grace the iconic stage of The Fleece. Opening with Electric Picnic, Mescal playing an acoustic guitar for a more gentle beginning, her voice captivates her audience from the get-go, her distinct ability to move seamlessly from smooth, sweet tones to moments of raw emotional power carried through her vocals. 

The slower sonics seamlessly blend into the more upbeat notes of Killing Time, Mescal running to the side of the stage to leave the guitar, and using the next three minutes to wander around the stage, leaning down to those in the front rows to sing with her more dedicated fans, and waving to those further back. The song’s lyrical content is still devastating (“Do I still cross your mind? / Or were you just killing time?”), but the way Mescal bounces around the stage, grinning and holding eye contact with her audience, you wouldn’t realise. It’s cathartic for everyone in the room. 

Having last seen Mescal up the road at Rough Trade almost two years ago, where she played a more stripped back set in support of her debut EP, Can I Miss It For A Minute?, it’s clear she’s become much more confident in her stage craft, her set filled with crowd interaction making the night feel intimate despite a much larger audience than the last time she was in the city. 

This engagement often takes a humorous tone with stories about spending her 22nd birthday in New York, where she recorded her new EP, The Closest We’ll Get, and laughing at the three girls in the front row who have dressed in the same red top she always wears onstage (apart from tonight).

However, there’s more heartfelt, moving moments of authenticity, particularly when she introduces the track, Thin, a beautifully delicate number which she performs with only her acoustic guitar, accompanied by her guitarist, and violinist. She addresses her crowd about how hard it was to finish the song, but how much she needed to write it, and how it’s one that has resonated the most with her audience, reminding them in the process that they are beautiful, despite whatever the internet is trying to tell them. The power in her vocals and emotional weight that she carries with every intonation is incredibly moving, the deeply honest exploration of the song’s themes goosebump inducing. We really are witnessing something special happening on this stage. 

The mood is lifted when she’s joined by the rest of the band onstage, Mescal dancing around again for songs such as Sweet Relief, before a particularly passionate performance of July, Mescal asking her audience to leave whatever is eating them up on the floor and to enjoy four minutes of relief. As the song closes out, she invites the crowd to scream along to the uplifting, empowering repetition of “It’s coming up roses”, reaching her audience into the front rows, Mescal beaming. 

The final song of the night is Homesick, the bouncing, more pop-drenched number within her discography which gets everyone in the audience singing along. “Is anyone here Homesick?”, to which The Fleece’s capacity responds with in screams, before carrying the final chorus of the song, taking great pleasure in shouting the “You said there’s no shame in that” line. 

Nell Mescal’s headline show at The Fleece is a perfect encapsulation of her confidence and what she does best; delicate, resonant lyricism and storytelling, with raw, powerful vocals which cut straight through. 

KATIE HILLIER