On Monday I was lucky enough to catch one of my favorite bands, Danish alt-prog rockers Mew, at the Henry Fonda Theater in Hollywood. Already quite excited for the show, Mew unleashed a precise, monstrous, elaborate performance, exceeding even my expectations.
The first thing I'll speak to is how impressive of a vocalist lead singer Jonas Bjerre (above) is. His voice is incredibly versatile, both in terms of range and timbre--it is soaring and majestic when it needs to be, then ethereal, then robust. He didn't miss a note all night long and his voice may have cracked one time, but even that was hardly noticeable. Bjerre was also experienced enough to always know the position of his microphone in relation to his face, knowing how close to bring it for the falsetto and how far to bring it away for the louder parts. This may sound elementary, but I've seen enough singers suffer through being too quiet or far too loud to not appreciate his appropriately-leveled vocals. I have heard some fantastic vocalists live--Sharon Jones comes to mind right away--but I don't think I have heard a rock vocalist perform with the talents of Bjerre.
The musicianship of the whole group was similarly excellent. While none of the musicians--with the possible exception of lead guitarist Bo Madsen--are required to play anything that requires virtuosic abilities, they play exceedingly well together, moving deftly through the non-traditional song structures and rhythms. Not only do they frequent unusual time signatures, but even when playing in 4/4, the drummer, uber-Danish named Silas Utke Graae Jørgensen, often plays atypical patterns. There were numerous times when I started counting along with a beat because I was curious to figure out the time signature, only to discover the song was in standard meter. They are, in general, much more rhythmically interesting live than on their recordings, as seeing the drummer draws a lot more attention to it.
The big surprise of the night was the videos, imagery, and lights that were playing behind the band. The production quality of the show was closer to a stadium event than the mid-sized theater it was actually in. The show began with a multi-colored light display, pulsing and exploding in sync with the music, but turned into a video of five people, in robes, dancing in a line with deer skeleton heads instead of their regular human heads. That imagery would prove to be indicative for the rest of the show, as future animations included dirty orphan children with puppet mouths singing along to the music, human-cat creatures playing violins, ravenous dogs lunging at the screen, and stampeding giraffes. There were also shots of soaring through space, other dimensions, and flying over snowy nordic landscapes. I learned later that Bjerre creates and animates these videos himself.
This video gives a decent idea of what some of the scenes were like--particularly once it gets past the minute mark:
The only show-accompaniment that proved too much was at the very end, when a teddy bear with blinding white light shooting out from behind him came to tell the audience--in a booming, impossibly low voice--that we would always be friends. Pretty bizarre, especially since the band stopped playing music to let him talk. But aside from that, their occasionally clunky lyrics (they do sing in English), and some pushy high school kids* near me, not much to complain about.
* I remember being young and frustrated that not all shows were all ages. For example, my friends and I once got turned away from a Maceo Parker show that we assumed was lax in its 21+ rules. Now that I'm over 21 though, I'm always annoyed when I see a group of awkward, emo-looking high schoolers that like the same music I do. It's probably mean (okay, not "probably") but I could've done without these fellow concert-goers on this night.
All in all, a glorious night of music. I had often heard Mew referred to as "the world's only indie stadium band." It was a tag that I could imagine by listening to their records, but was fully realized when seeing them live. They closed with one of my favorite songs, "Louise Louisa" which was surprise to me, as I was under the impression that all their shows ended with "Comforting Sounds," which my friend David (who introduced me to Mew) has aptly called their "Hey Jude." For those who haven't heard Mew but are interested, I would recommend Frengers as the album to listen to, though David would probably suggest And the Glass Handed Kites. They released a new album recently, literally titled No More Stories are Told Today I'm Sorry they Washed Away No More Stories the World is Grey I'm Tired Let's Wash Away, but I've only listened to it a handful of times and don't know it well enough to rank it against the previous two--it is good though.
"What a day I have had
What a day I have had
Now it's over, isn't it?"
- Mew
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