Mitski’s Sydney Show Was a Daring, Theatrical Triumph
To watch Mitski perform is to witness something intimate, and tenderly human.
It’s a very big night for Moaning Lisa.
Consider this: The last time our headliner this evening performed in this very room, members of Moaning Lisa were in the audience. They’d travelled all the way up from Canberra just to be in her presence.
To return some 18 months later as the main support is testament to how much work the band have put in — a moment of self-actualisation and taking huge strides on their own accord.
Even with a smattering of established fans across the room, this set also serves as an introduction to many in attendance. It’s here that the band make their first impressions count — the shoegazing ‘Good’ gets heads nodding, while the bittersweet pop of ‘Comfortable’ gets bodies swaying.
It’s easy to find yourself charmed by the band, who banter with the crowd about their nerves and make a few girls’ nights by inviting them to take up space down the front. Truthfully, they’re just as excited to be there as everyone watching them is — we’re all fans here, and there’s a lot to be taken from that.
The band close out with their two strongest songs, which also happened to be two of the best locally-released tracks of 2018: The celebrity-crush Unearthed fave ‘Carrie (I Want a Girl)’, and the heart-wrenching break-up ballad ‘Lily.’ As the latter’s final notes wash out over the crowd, one can’t help but feel as though this is a real mission-accomplished moment for a band that just can’t seem to stop kicking goals.
When Mitski was last in Australia, it was on the back of her 2016 breakthrough Puberty 2. If that album broke through, then last August’s Be the Cowboy practically kicked a hole in the sky. It was deemed album of the year by no less than five publications, earning a top-ten position in a further ten’s lists.
Although this momentum would dictate needing a bigger room to accommodate, there’s something about the Oxford Art Factory that just seems perfect. In close quarters, packed in from wall to wall, we’re watching something bare, intimate and tenderly human.
We’re watching something bare, intimate and tenderly human.
Much has been made of how Mitski’s approach to performance has changed on the touring cycle for Cowboy. No longer anchored by a guitar or a bass, she performs entirely untethered with a focus on choreography and expressive movement in tandem with the songs. “Get your bags outta the way!” she warns the front row at one point. “I’m gonna be moving!”
She’s not kidding, either: She spends the next song, ‘Francis Forever,’ frantically pacing back and forth from stage right to stage left and back again. That’s backed up by Cowboy‘s ‘Me and My Husband,’ which is accentuated by sashays and kicks against the slinking drums and driving piano.
Nearly every song has some sort of routine attached to it, but it never feels laboured over or forced in any way. Mitski has adapted and evolved her live show entirely for the better – and let’s not forget the woman was no slouch in that department prior to this.
When Mitski is in the throes of her performance, she keeps the fourth wall firmly up — as any professional should. Perhaps some of the best moments of the entire evening, however, come when said wall falls before her very eyes.
During ‘Nobody,’ easily the most popular song from Cowboy, she briefly moves away from the microphone — only to have an entire room singing her words back to her, the voices filling the air at a level that feels as though people have been waiting a long time to sing along to this one in the flesh.
Pausing for a moment, she runs with it — if only for a moment, we’re doing lead vocals for Mitski. This also happens later during the one-two of ‘Your Best American Girl’ and ‘Geyser.’ Rather than let it distract or hinder the performance, Mitski uses this to her advantage. She makes it clear this is just as much about us as it is about her. The world’s a stage, and right now we’re all on it together.
With a show unlike anything we’re likely to see for the rest of 2019 going forward, Mitski has cemented herself as a true original.
David James Young is a writer and podcaster who still gets spooked by that jump-scare bit in the first 30 seconds of ‘Geyser.’ He tweets at @DJYwrites.