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MEW OH NO! OH MY! |
Mew and Oh No! Oh My! @ St Andrews Hall - 3-27-07 by Nick Meador
On Tuesday, March 27, I drove to St Andrews Hall in Detroit to see a concert, and I brought along the SpartanEdge video camera to document the performance. I was stopped at the door because the venue is operated like a high-security prison. The reason was not because I was carrying a video camera. It was because they thought I had a professional still camera – just a camera that takes pictures. I was informed that I would have had to arrange something with the band weeks in advance. I took the video camera out to my car so I could enter the show. I later saw a man with a large still camera around his neck escorted out of the audience. Later that night, I would do my homework and find out that St Andrews Hall is affiliated with Live Nation, which, according to their web site, is “the world’s largest live music company.” I shuddered with fear and disgust, sucked up my hatred and took photos and lo-res videos on my digital camera. In the recent trend of the Go! Team and Thunderbirds Are Now!, Oh No! Oh My! is yet another band to put an exclamation point in their name. It’s not necessarily a gimmick, but it does set the bar high for what energy level the band must then achieve. And ONOM is energetic, to say the least. The Austin, TX, group is also extremely young, but alarmingly self-assured. Two members wore vintage t-shirts — one with a Mogwai (of Gremlins fame) and the other with the slogan “Stonehedge Rocks!” over a picture of the ancient landmark. Singer Greg Barkley has a voice that matches Dan Bejar (Destroyer) and Daniel Kessler (of Interpol). Their set included the songs “I Have No Sister” and “Walk In The Park,” both of which are currently spinning on the Impact 89 FM. Essentially, ONOM walks the fine line between hipster silliness and genuine, creative indie pop. Their playing is very tight and hoppy, and it sticks in your head from the moment you hear it. It won’t be surprised if the band appears at Lollapalooza 2007 (the line-up announcement comes on April 12!!!). The contrast between the opening band and Mew was devastating, not only in the stage lighting but the type of music as well. The trio of Jonas Bjerre (vocals), Bo Madsen (guitar) and Silas Graae (drums), who are all from Denmark, was inflated to a quintet for the live show. The five men looked very northern European — many had long light-brown hair and all had pale skin and protruding Adam’s apples. The drummer was positioned sideways, which allowed the crowd to see his movements and facial expressions. Bjerre wore a grey vest and eyed the microphone with pouty lips. The show opened with “Circuitry of the Wolf” and “Chinaberry Tree,” the first two tracks off of And The Glass Handed Kites, their critically acclaimed album released last year. When a band has a somewhat glossed-over sound like Mew, it’s reasonable to expect that the live show won’t sound quite as good as the album. However, in this case the opposite was true. The band is capable of reproducing every sound from their album on stage. That observation extends to Bjerre’s voice, which holds an extraordinary range. The band went on to play many songs from their debut album, Frengers, which was recently re-released in the U.S. “Am I Wry? No” came early in the set, featuring video of a cat in a red army uniform walking through a forest. In fact, the most memorable (and sometimes disturbing) aspect of Mew’s show is the video animations by Bjerre. They are displayed on a large screen behind the band, except the projector was behind the audience, so the video showed on the clothes and faces of the band as well. This made the band appear to be in the video at times. Other songs from Frengers were “156,” “Snow Brigade” and “Symmetry.” This was almost the downfall of the show. While those early songs range from good to great, the songs from their newest album effort are astonishing and unforgettable. Fortunately, the band didn’t omit all new songs. “Apocalypso” was just as explosive as on the album, and was accompanied by absolutely horrifying images of rabid wolves. “The Zookeeper’s Boy” took shape as a twisted fantasy with giraffes and bobble-headed man/animal creatures. “Special” was also memorable, despite not coming with any video. One downside to the show was an extreme overuse of strobe lights on the crowd. They left the band in the dark and repeatedly blinded the small audience. It is obvious that Mew’s live show has been packaged in a stadium kit, ready to unload into a venue 50 times the size of St. Andrews hall. The band left the stage twice during the show, but neither return could really be called an encore. The show ended with “Comforting Songs,” a long, dreamy escapade that left every person with a warm, happy feeling inside. One of my musical theories is that every band can be linked (in one or more ways) to the Beatles, Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd. As this show, I kept thinking of Pink Floyd, specifically the track “Run Like Hell” from the Wall. But whereas Pink Floyd was running from marching hammers in a bad acid trip, Mew is running from the nightmarish creatures of the world (in dreams and reality). It seems that Mew’s music comes from some point in human development before you figure out that fairy tale characters are completely fabricated and can do you no harm. But then the band realizes that the “grown-up world” is also full of gruesome characters and chooses to live, at least sometimes, within the psyche of a child. It’s a balance between child and adult, dream and awake, and space and earth that characterizes the world of Mew. With all the negative energy currently occupying the realm of humans, an occasional trip into the land of fantasy might be just what we need. Maybe next time that trip will occur at a place that isn’t run by an international corporation designed to screw over music fans. LINKS: |
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