10 things we learned…
Uncut is the oldest here by about 40 years
…which isn’t always the way when the music is melancholic Americana and slamming indie rock, as it is with Mitski. A Dead Oceans artist – as is Phoebe Bridgers – Mitski has pulled in a devoted fandom of empathetic youth to her dark vignettes.
People are catching on at different speeds
Odd to relate but on the same tour that she sells out the 6000 capacity Albert Hall in about ten minutes, she also played the New Music stage at Radio 1’s Big Weekend. She’s been doing record shop pop ups. This is the big finish.
Mitski likes to expose her crowd to new things
Between acts, she plays a selection of free-leaning spiritual jazz. Someone next to me Shazams some Max Roach. John Coltrane’s Love Supreme Live In Seattle gets an airing.
This policy extends to her support act
…namely, the excellent Gwenifer Raymond. Perhaps we came for the mordant indie relationship dramas. But we are respectful and supportive of Gwen’s harmonic bending and John Fahey-meets Sonic Youth acoustic guitar mind-melts.
It’s a stripped back business
There have been Mitski shows in costume and with intense choreography. Here her five-piece band make like the Black Crowes, hugging the back wall on islands of carpet. There is a sofa and standard lamp on which Mitski will occasionally flop – as she does during the excellent “I Bet On Losing Dogs” – but that’s it.
Less is more
The drama is all in a Mitski show. There is genuine library silence before she starts to play, so keen is the anticipation. The emotive power of her vocal – say on “If I Leave” – is such that Mitski herself can remain sculpturally still. When she breaks into a carefree dance, the crowd go insane.
So many songs!
A prolific artist can sometimes be imprisoned by their setlist – there are so many songs that, say, Lana Del Rey has to play there’s not much room for manoeuvre beyond. Eight albums in, Mitski – average song length 3 minutes – is able to dive deep into her new album Nothing’s About To Happen To Me, but still hit catalogue classics like “Washing Machine Heart” and “Francis Forever”. She plays 25 songs.
Old films
There’s a restrained mood to the presentation, but the Mitski aesthetic is well served by her use of black and white film clips on a fairly low-tech seeming screen behind the band. The arena rock thrash of this year’s “Where’s My Phone?” is given a comic disconnect by being accompanied by on-the-nose fast cuts of 20th century folk using dial telephones.
That White Cat
The new Mitski album is a conceptually tight domestic drama: dark intimations, horrible ironies, mistreatment of women. Musically and thematically, songs like “Dead Girls” or “In A Lake” could be by The Handsome Family. Interestingly, it also runs to a song as crazy as the penultimate song tonight, “That White Cat”. Great song. On one level sinister relationship allegory. Also: a handy index of the possible infestations which can imperil the home owner.
She doesn’t milk it
Adored as she is by her audience, Mitski herself doesn’t exploit their glow. After a sparsely-accompanied encore of “Pearl Diver”, she jogs briskly offstage. On the screen a familiar slogan appears from the canon of old films: “That’s all folks!”
10 things we learned…
Uncut is the oldest here by about 40 years
…which isn’t always the way when the music is melancholic Americana and slamming indie rock, as it is with Mitski. A Dead Oceans artist – as is Phoebe Bridgers – Mitski has pulled in a devoted fandom of empathetic youth to her dark vignettes.
People are catching on at different speeds
Odd to relate but on the same tour that she sells out the 6000 capacity Albert Hall in about ten minutes, she also played the New Music stage at Radio 1’s Big Weekend. She’s been doing record shop pop ups. This is the big finish.
Mitski likes to expose her crowd to new things
Between acts, she plays a selection of free-leaning spiritual jazz. Someone next to me Shazams some Max Roach. John Coltrane’s Love Supreme Live In Seattle gets an airing.
This policy extends to her support act
…namely, the excellent Gwenifer Raymond. Perhaps we came for the mordant indie relationship dramas. But we are respectful and supportive of Gwen’s harmonic bending and John Fahey-meets Sonic Youth acoustic guitar mind-melts.
It’s a stripped back business
There have been Mitski shows in costume and with intense choreography. Here her five-piece band make like the Black Crowes, hugging the back wall on islands of carpet. There is a sofa and standard lamp on which Mitski will occasionally flop – as she does during the excellent “I Bet On Losing Dogs” – but that’s it.
Less is more
The drama is all in a Mitski show. There is genuine library silence before she starts to play, so keen is the anticipation. The emotive power of her vocal – say on “If I Leave” – is such that Mitski herself can remain sculpturally still. When she breaks into a carefree dance, the crowd go insane.
So many songs!
A prolific artist can sometimes be imprisoned by their setlist – there are so many songs that, say, Lana Del Rey has to play there’s not much room for manoeuvre beyond. Eight albums in, Mitski – average song length 3 minutes – is able to dive deep into her new album Nothing’s About To Happen To Me, but still hit catalogue classics like “Washing Machine Heart” and “Francis Forever”. She plays 25 songs.
Old films
There’s a restrained mood to the presentation, but the Mitski aesthetic is well served by her use of black and white film clips on a fairly low-tech seeming screen behind the band. The arena rock thrash of this year’s “Where’s My Phone?” is given a comic disconnect by being accompanied by on-the-nose fast cuts of 20th century folk using dial telephones.
That White Cat
The new Mitski album is a conceptually tight domestic drama: dark intimations, horrible ironies, mistreatment of women. Musically and thematically, songs like “Dead Girls” or “In A Lake” could be by The Handsome Family. Interestingly, it also runs to a song as crazy as the penultimate song tonight, “That White Cat”. Great song. On one level sinister relationship allegory. Also: a handy index of the possible infestations which can imperil the home owner.
She doesn’t milk it
Adored as she is by her audience, Mitski herself doesn’t exploit their glow. After a sparsely-accompanied encore of “Pearl Diver”, she jogs briskly offstage. On the screen a familiar slogan appears from the canon of old films: “That’s all folks!”