BINA.: ST. PANCRAS OLD CHURCH
Review by PORTIA BRAJKOVIC
I’ve seen BINA. live twice before, but her sold-out headline show at St Pancras Old Church in London’s Kings Cross feels different. With her third EP, Chaos Is Her Name, out in the world, and stepping into a new era of her creative expression, BINA. is here to prove that she was the stage presence to match her pen game, and then some.
Having gotten on the wrong branch of the Northern line (again), I arrive halfway through opener Olympia Vitalis’ set, and the venue is already packed. Olympia has once-in-a-generation vocals, and is a natural presence behind the mic, joking with the audience here and there and divulging the story behind each song. It’s no wonder she’s recently been pulled for a COLORS performance; BINA. was wise to choose her to set the energy for the night. I’m particularly taken by ‘Curls’, a soulful reflection on growing up mixed race and navigating a world of white beauty standards, a song Olympia credits with changing her life.
Sometime shortly after 9pm, the lights dim, the crowd hushes (you know how it goes), and heads turn expectantly towards the stage. Instead, a voice rings out from behind us, and as we all swivel around, BINA. emerges up above us on the cloisters, delivering a few lines of 2022’s ‘Blackjack’ a cappella. Immediately, it’s clear this isn’t going to be a regular show; it’s theatre. After making her way through the crowd and settling on the stage, she launches into ‘Caged Bird’. She explains that she wrote and recorded this song in her room when she was 18, after she told her foster mum she wanted to pursue music and was gifted a mic. Even at that young age, she quips, she had something to say.
The show is a lengthy, yet captivating journey through BINA.’s catalogue. BINA.’s demeanour is poised and warm. Yet something about her feels untouchable, or perhaps regal is a better word, like we are watching a star in the making who is well aware of the bounds of her talent and waiting for the world to catch up.
A little later in the evening, she invites us to soft rage with her to the pre-EP single ‘Self Assured’. She instructs us to “crash out beautifully and feel your feelings fully”, and BINA. too sheds off a layer, going full-throttle on the chorus, holding nothing back. Pleading new track ‘Precious’ is delivered with unrestrained vulnerability, in which the audience partakes, singing along. My standout of the evening is ‘Bossy’. The song unfurls slowly and beautifully: first, a cappella paraphrased vocals and broken first sentences, then the rest of the band introducing their parts one-by-one.
The night is peppered with appearances from BINA.’s collaborators, including Essence Martins and 9DAYS, both of whom are featured on Chaos Is Her Name. Lex Amor even pops out to assist on ‘Mercedes to Hades’ off 2021 project, This Is Not A Film, delivering her trademark softly-spoken verse before darting backstage.
BINA. signals this EP as a journey through her life, saying that it hasn’t been smooth sailing, but she’s been let with a lot of lessons and some cool songs, too: “I’m only 25. I’ve learned a lot in a condensed period of time, and it’s been exhausting”. But, not one to gatekeep, she gifts the audience one of these lessons, advising us: “all the love you go searching for is in you first, and then it reflects on the outside. Just let that love shine wisely.” .
