Our brilliant guest blogger, Britt Lundborg, attended last night’s gig and offers a full report! MGMT played a semi-secret gig last night at Mercury Lounge. The whole business was password protected so when you received your confirmation e-mail for the ticket, it read that you’d bought the opportunity to hear the fine vocal stylings of ‘The Smirking Worm’. Believe me, anyone who managed to score a ticket surely had every reason to smirk. Every gig at Mercury is intimate. And here was MGMT fresh off their trip to the Grammys debuting new tunes from their upcoming release, Congratulations. When I walked in, the room was a quarter full and the boys were rolling around the room, mixing with well-wishers and mates. The room quickly packed and after a rather odd opening act consisting of a foul-mouthed ventriloquist dummy (is there any other kind?) and his human partner, MGMT took the stage to huge cheers. Andrew VanWyngarden, cutie that he is, pulled an awe-shucks move when he said to the rapt crowd, ‘We just really like to play music’. Bless. Seamlessly shuffling between new material and tracks the entire audience could sing back to them, MGMT look, feel and sound like polished pros. They seemed comfortable and confident and didn’t grimace once when playing crowd-pleasing favorites, like ‘Weekend…’ & ‘Electric Feel’. And when they played ‘Flash…’ & ‘Congratulations’, two songs that have just barely begun banging around the blogosphere, the crowd knew just how to sing along. Congratulations, indeed.
More photos, the setlist & an MGMT tune AFTER THE JUMP…
(Setlist) Song For Dan Treacy. Weekend Wars. It’s Working. Flash Delirium. Time To Pretend. I Found A Whistle. Siberian Breaks. Electric Feel. Pieces Of What. Brian Eno. The Youth. Congratulations.
