Mew - London Islington Academy - 19/9/05
4/5
By: Sabuhi Mir
Entering the Islington Academy to the strains of Lynrd Skynyrd's 'Free Bird' was not what we had in mind before Danish experimental popsters, Mew - or as certain circles enjoy to call them, the adorable Meow - amble on stage. Mew, who are: Jonas Bjerre (vocals), Bo Madsen (guitar), Johan Wohlert (bass)
and Silas Graae (drums), have been knocking around - musically, speaking of
course - for a couple of years, and met at film school in Denmark.
And arty film school influences are shamelessly brought out to the fore live, with what could be described as a beautiful series of trippy, fairytale projections/flickerings accompanying their hour-long set - all the band's own work too, put together at Denmark's Video Filmlab studios. They are, indeed, a peevish bunch.
So we get cats playing fiddles, giraffes roaming, dreamy sunsets, weird elfish-aliens, luminous insects, as part of the lavish backdrop. The messy beauty of Dinosaur Jr
(who Jonas pays tribute to this evening) and My Bloody Valentine can be heard in their soulful rackets, let alone pinches of Flaming Lips and the Arcade
Fire, but Jonas's high-pitched, and at times, androgynous vocals give their tones a unique warm in the cold.
'Am I Wry? No', Mew's first UK single, is aired, along with download-only numba 'Apocalypso'; quietly monumental for its sheer five minutes of gushing and swooping, which encourages nauseating dizziness in the soul. But the crowd is waiting for something else entirely. Then snow cascades furiously down the projection-screen beyond the band. A metaphorical chill sweeps through the crowd before the Danes launch into the epic 'She Came Home For Christmas' off 'Frengers' (released in 2003). It is indeed eerie, but quite, quite beautiful.
However, the best is still to come. Mew's most well-known song. The gorgeous, and we must say, tear-jerking, 'Comforting Sounds' fills the Academy with a deft prog poignancy their contemporaries are most oft aloof to. Naturally, it's the finale. All that is left to do, is to scuttle off into a forest in a pixie-like manner. Wish we could join them.
Artists in this article: Mew, Mewgatz
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