We’ve seen and heard a lot across our many years of doing Studio Milwaukee Sessions. We’ve had artists play multiple instruments all by their lonesome. We’ve had artists who can hit a flute solo in between verses. We’ve had artists who deploy some tricky whistling and even sing in a foreign language.
But we’ve never had one artist do all of that in the same session — until this one.
That laundry list of abilities took the stage in the person of NOAMZ, who also represented the rare Badger State resident to score a Studio Milwaukee Session invite. As she put it during the interview portion, “Shout out to Wisconsin and Madison for training me. I would not be this good of a flute player if it hadn’t been for the teachers in Madison.”
Another connection from home was on hand while she put those skills — and many others — to work, as her dad made the short trip from Madison to do the music version of the proud supportive parent thing, including manning the merch table and filming her performance.
What a performance it was. The set built momentum as it went along, starting with NOAMZ and a guitar for the gentile-but-gutting “Unlovable.” It then became sort of a throwback to MTV Unplugged as she shared the heartbreak behind that song and a therapist’s advice that led to the flute-solo-fueled “Anxiety.” The whistled intro of “Summer” followed, leaving the fitting “Au Revoir” — sung entirely in French — for the finale.
It was a wonderful grab bag of musical talent and telling tales and plain old stage presence. If you weren’t fortunate enough to experience it in person like our Radio Milwaukee members did, you can listen to the session using the player on this page. Even better, NOAMZ is giving all of us a second chance to catch her live when she swings back through Milwaukee for a show at Cactus Club on July 14.
Set list
- “Unlovable”
- “Anxiety”
- “Summer”
- “Au Revoir” (non-broadcast performance)
