17-year-old Noah Cyrus already has a massive hit on her hands. Now the younger sister of Miley Cyrus is trying to tighten up her live show.
Tuesday night, Cyrus performed a brief and unannounced set at the Resident in downtown LA. The room was filled with mostly friends and family, some familiar faces perhaps to give Cyrus a lot of comfort as she took the stage with a good backing band behind her.
Her song “Make Me (Cry)” featuring Labrinth already has 34 million YouTube plays and counting. Noah Cyrus proved that her voice doesn’t just sound good in the studio, but is even more powerful live. She played six songs – four of which were covers – all of which showcased her hefty vocal range.
She didn’t kick things off with an easy song – a cover of “Electric Love” by BØRNS. She held the note on one of the final choruses for a lengthy period without her voice breaking. She followed it up with the much simpler Lana del Rey track “Young and Beautiful” and then Vance Joy’s “Riptide” before performing two originals.
The first original was “Almost Famous” – which sounded like what Kelly Clarkson would have been had she gone a folksier route. It was a solid track, but her massive single “Make Me (Cry)” was a bit more exciting. For being such a small venue, it sounded fantastic and the song was paced extremely well.
Noah Cyrus closed her show with a cover of one of my favorite songs of the last few years – “I Forget Where We Were” by Ben Howard. She more than did the song justice and Howard – himself a fan of performing covers – would no doubt have been proud of the rendition.
It was one of a couple unannounced gigs that Noah Cyrus played. The stage was small but she seemed pretty comfortable up there. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until she plays gigs that her fans know about – and when she does, they’ll be packed. It’s clear that the Cyrus family tree of talent is pretty vast.
By the way — if you’ve never been to the Resident, I highly recommend checking it out. I’d never been before, it’s definitely a sweet little bar on a dope block downtown.
