Another day, another chance to see a great artist performing at Rough Trade. To celebrate the release of her new album It's Just My Opinion, Girli (aka Milly Toomey) headed out across the country to perform intimate in-store shows for her fans, including a return to Rough Trade. Girli’s music is a chaotic but fresh mix that sits at the intersection of electropop, pop‑punk and synth‑pop and she brought this out from the offset...
Playing to a small, 100+ audience, Girli took every moment in her stride. The opening tracks of the set were two new songs from the album, Blue Sky and Squirm, followed by I Really F***ed It Up from her EP why am i like this?? where the excitement and the energy got to her too much and she messed up the lyrics, having to start again. This just added to the atmosphere of the crowd with laughter and cheering echoing around the Rough Trade attic.
The ongoing themes of the night, echoing throughout the lyrics Girli sang, were important, even in 2026: queerness, feminism, politics, as well as a reminder of how important it is to support artists through physical media. This vibe continued through the set-list with Better Undressed, Lifestyle and Friday Night Big Screen, the latter being an electronic ballad featuring a collage of shout‑outs to unforgettable movie couples with lyrics such as “I’ll be your Christian/You'll be my Winona”, and “Kat kissed Patrick/Guess she got a hat trick”.
Throughout the show, Girli engaged with the audience as if she knew each one of them closely, something artists often fail to do, even in smaller venues. She performed each song wearing a slogan tee a fan had gifted her, sporting the words “Don’t catcall me or I will key your car”, based on a true story she had once told. In between each song on the setlist, the crowd were treated to stories, jokes and an introduction to the band. This featured Lucy on drums, and Girli’s own partner, Kit, on guitar.
Romantic Sadness, Bones and Don't Make Me Cry followed, all new tracks taken from It's Just My Opinion, with Girli explaining the story behind the track title for Romantic Sadness as her "sister being dramatic after a break up". Don't Make Me Cry is about her parents' divorce.
Throughout the show, fans were singing both at Girli on stage, but also to each other, lost in the atmosphere and the energy of the night. When More Than a Friend came up on the set list, this was more prevalent than ever. A song about kissing your friends saw Girli plant a big kiss on guitarist Kit during the performance; the energy peaked in the room at this moment.
Closing out the set were Slap On The Wrist, which Girli proclaimed to be the favourite song she had ever written. It is about the victim-blaming society that is still so powerful. Here, she told the crowd she will always go to war to fight for women, trans people and people of colour.
Matriarchy followed with an explosion of queer happiness and love woven throughout the lyrics, “You and I makе our own matriarchy / When we touch, we f*** to f*** thе patriarchy”. It was a powerful way to end an intimate and deeply connective evening of pure fun. A Girli show is always known for being queer, loud, emotionally charged, and this evening at Rough Trade was exactly that.
Girli performed at Rough Trade Nottingham on 14th May 2026.
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