Answer: they fall flat on their faces, nearly breaking those oh so perfectly placed wayfarer sunglasses.
I'm not saying the band sounded bad because they didn't. They gave a CD quality consistent performance which ultimately became their downfall. The stage show was nonexistent: five scowling hip-hip-hipster cartoon characters phoning in songs for just over an hour. They were literally too cool for their own concert; aloof, unconcerned and concealed behind sunglasses and under technicolor tunics and headbands.
The concert was a pathetic testament to how the speed of blog buzz is slowly killing the art of the live performance. Of the 6,000 people attending the concert, I didn't see one person actually singing along to any of the songs off Oracular Spectacular beyond the three that have been celebrated online. This leads me to believe very few people in attendance even own the entire album. In a sense, blogs are creating a new generation of one hit wonders: those bands featured and forgotten online with the click of a mouse.
And what of "Electric Feel?" Let's just say the dance party portrayed in the song's video is false advertising. I have given more energy to performing this song during many a SCOPE concert after party. The synth was thin, the vocal screechy, my heart broken.
The stand out song was "Kids," the last of the encore. It was performed by only two band members, neither playing instruments but singing along with a prerecorded backing track. The fact this makeshift karaoke was the best of the set was sadly ironic. The fact the crowd members were jumping and screaming "control yourself, take only what you need from it" at the band they will undoubtedly forget about when the next big blog thing comes around was even more sadly ironic.
I think the band should trash live performing all together. All they need to do is stay in their Brooklyn studio apartments and make catchy electro-pop dance songs that I can throw away when I sober up the morning after dance parties.
4 comments:
This is an incredibly depressing post. Don't give up on MGMT because of lackluster fans/a weak performance.
agreed. try not to take it out on the band. i'm sure you're right in stating that their live show was somewhat weak. but they haven't been around long enough to really have perfected a live show. bands used to have years of touring and playing in shitty tiny clubs to perfect their stage presence. now, like you said, blogs overhype, and new bands have audiences that should be outside their reach. or maybe it isn't so much the blogs faults for talking about them as it is for concert goers who there not so much to see the band, but to be seen at the bands show.
also keep in mind that you saw a buzz band (not even a full year past their debut release) in BROOKLYN, the capital of indie hipster indifference, where concerts are for scenesters rather than music fans. of course the crowd didn't know the music.
and my final thing to say is that, while i do love oracular spectacular, the interviews i've seen of these guys make them seem more than a little douchey. so maybe they should shoulder some of the blame as well.
p.s. you should have seen the dance party i got going at airliner on friday. ooooooeeeee.
MGMT are great on record but they are a horrible live band. The lead singer can't sing, but he rasps words half-heartedly. The crowd's energy is strong, but MGMT is a bad live band.
this is a fair assessment to say the least...andrew cannot sing, period...it's painfully obvious when you see them live...they are a studio band, plain and simple...OS is a fantastic record, so at least they are good song writers...live though, don't even bother...let the obsessed hipsters pay too much money and stand in crowds to hear a bad live show...trust me, you don't want to be a part of it...
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