Venue: TD Garden, Boston, MA
Date: April 3rd, 2018
Mitski: Anything that falls under the indie rock/folk/pop umbrella is always a huge dice roll for me. An overwhelming majority of the artists in these scenes either resonate with me right away or grate on me to the point where I want to chop my ears off with any sharp object that's in reach. Mitski is definitely in the former camp. With her utilization of heavily-distorted guitars and a distinct voice that constantly veers between beautiful and melancholic, she's easily the most interesting indie rocker I've been exposed to over the last several years. After I get the new Flatbush Zombies, Augury and Wonder Years records off of my listening queue, I plan on finding out if Mitski's recorded material has the same unique magic as her live show.
Run the Jewels: Full disclosure: The bizarre yet intriguing opportunity to see Run the Jewels open for Lorde was the driving force behind my decision to go to this show. While Lorde has considerably less teenage fans than most of her peers in the pop community right now, RTJ's rage-and-expletive filled brand of hip-hop was still a lock to shell shock a portion of the audience and as a huge fan of watching people become visibly horrified by music that's foreign to them, I needed to see this potentially hysterical scene play out before my eyes. In a mildly sad development, this hypothetical comedic scenario never materialized. The clear gap in musical style between Lorde and RTJ was a fact that Killer Mike and El-P constantly poked fun at during their 45 minutes on stage, and that level of self-awareness helped make the atmosphere a lot less awkward than I anticipated.
Even though the place wasn't completely dead, the crowd response still had a notable impact on the quality of Run the Jewels' performance. Despite their best efforts, performing on a massive arena stage in front of a crowd that was predominantly full of people that were either unfamiliar and/or didn't enjoy their music prevented them from establishing the beautifully raucous environment that their shows typically have. Relatively muted crowd reaction aside, Run the Jewels was still very enjoyable and they deserve a lot of credit for agreeing to appear on a tour where a majority of their corps fans weren't likely to show up.
Even though the place wasn't completely dead, the crowd response still had a notable impact on the quality of Run the Jewels' performance. Despite their best efforts, performing on a massive arena stage in front of a crowd that was predominantly full of people that were either unfamiliar and/or didn't enjoy their music prevented them from establishing the beautifully raucous environment that their shows typically have. Relatively muted crowd reaction aside, Run the Jewels was still very enjoyable and they deserve a lot of credit for agreeing to appear on a tour where a majority of their corps fans weren't likely to show up.
Lorde: For as many misguided descision as I make, from time to time I'll stumble into a brilliant one. The morbid curiosity I had of seeing Run the Jewels and Lorde share a stage resulted in me experiencing a monster performance from one of pop's brightest young talents.
As impressive as her material is on record, the live setting benefits Lorde tremendously. I was honestly stunned by how much more powerful her voice was without the studio manipulations (pitch correct, Auto-Tune, etc.) that go into every major record. The live setting, where shit/lip synch-reliant singers get eaten alive, unlocked an even deeper range of vocals than I previously thought she had (demonstrated on Melodrama ballad "Writer in the Dark", Hunger Games Mockingjay Part I soundtrack cut "Yellow Flicker Beat" and her chilling cover of Frank Ocean's "Solo") and made the emotional undercurrent that drives all of her finest tracks ("Sober", "Tennis Court", "Perfect Places", "Melodrama", "400 Lux") even stronger. This might just be a kneejerk reaction that's stemming from a post-concert high, but I'd honestly go as far to say that Lorde is in the mix with The Weeknd, Lana Del Rey and Banks for the title of best vocalist I've ever seen perform in person
Another pleasant surprise was how much better the material from her debut Pure Heroine sounded live. The cheap-sounding minimalist production from Joel Little that prevented a lot of the record from connecting with me sounded much cleaner in a live setting and that adjustment in mix quality allowed these tracks to become raw and hypnotic as hell. I enjoyed these songs so much last night that I might get frisky and reevaluate songs like "Ribs" and "Buzzcut Season" that left me cold whenever I'd heard them in the past.
If you're an aspiring pop/R&B singer, you could learn a lot from taking in a Lorde show. Her show is light on elaborate theatrics, but her vocals are so god damn impressive that she doesn't need to do anything else to command a stage and send the crowd into a frenzy. I'm fucking elated that I decided to go to this show and I will happily go praise the Lorde whenever she returns to the lovely city of Boston.
Scores:
Mitski 8/10
Run the Jewels 8/10
Lorde 9/10
As impressive as her material is on record, the live setting benefits Lorde tremendously. I was honestly stunned by how much more powerful her voice was without the studio manipulations (pitch correct, Auto-Tune, etc.) that go into every major record. The live setting, where shit/lip synch-reliant singers get eaten alive, unlocked an even deeper range of vocals than I previously thought she had (demonstrated on Melodrama ballad "Writer in the Dark", Hunger Games Mockingjay Part I soundtrack cut "Yellow Flicker Beat" and her chilling cover of Frank Ocean's "Solo") and made the emotional undercurrent that drives all of her finest tracks ("Sober", "Tennis Court", "Perfect Places", "Melodrama", "400 Lux") even stronger. This might just be a kneejerk reaction that's stemming from a post-concert high, but I'd honestly go as far to say that Lorde is in the mix with The Weeknd, Lana Del Rey and Banks for the title of best vocalist I've ever seen perform in person
Another pleasant surprise was how much better the material from her debut Pure Heroine sounded live. The cheap-sounding minimalist production from Joel Little that prevented a lot of the record from connecting with me sounded much cleaner in a live setting and that adjustment in mix quality allowed these tracks to become raw and hypnotic as hell. I enjoyed these songs so much last night that I might get frisky and reevaluate songs like "Ribs" and "Buzzcut Season" that left me cold whenever I'd heard them in the past.
If you're an aspiring pop/R&B singer, you could learn a lot from taking in a Lorde show. Her show is light on elaborate theatrics, but her vocals are so god damn impressive that she doesn't need to do anything else to command a stage and send the crowd into a frenzy. I'm fucking elated that I decided to go to this show and I will happily go praise the Lorde whenever she returns to the lovely city of Boston.
Scores:
Mitski 8/10
Run the Jewels 8/10
Lorde 9/10
Setlists:
Mitski:
Francis Forever
I Don't Smoke
Thursday Girl
Townie
Your Best American Girl
I Bet on Losing Dogs
I Will
Drunk Walk Home
My Body's Made of Crushed Little Stars
Run the Jewels:
Talk to Me
Talk to Me
Legend Has It
Call Ticketron
Blockbuster Night Part 1
Oh My Darling Don't Cry
Oh My Darling Don't Cry
Stay Gold
Don't Get Captured
Nobody Speak (DJ Shadow cover)
Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)
A Report to the Shareholders
Thursday in the Danger Room
Down
Lorde:
Sober
Homemade Dynamite
Tennis Court
Magnets (Disclosure cover)
Buzzcut Season
400 Lux
Ribs
The Louvre
Hard Feelings
Yellow Flicker Beat
Writer in the Dark
Solo (Frank Ocean cover)
Liability
Sober II (Melodrama)
Supercut
Royals
Perfect Places
Green Light
Encore:
Loveless
Precious Metals
Team
No comments:
Post a Comment