MGMT
The Metro
Wednesday 7 April 2010
As press releases are wont, the write-up for MGMT’s ‘Surprise Gig’ at the Metro promised positively pant-moistening levels of anticipation and excitement over the band’s ‘new’ record. But from the reaction on the actual night, you’d have thought there was a carbon monoxide leak. When Andrew VanWyngarden, Ben Goldwasser and their supporting cast take to the stage at the Metro on Wednesday, they get something less than the half-assed reaction you’d expect at a university band comp: there are some scattered whoops of recognition but most of the room is happy to talk amongst themselves, and everyone is still chatting when the band launches unassumingly into their unbecoming opening number ‘Flash Delirium’. The crowd carries on chatting for the rest of the night.
As if the combination of strange new music and a tide of indifference wasn’t already going to make the night a tough slog, the sound quality of the new material is atrocious. It’s as if the right configurations haven’t been found for a live setting yet. Despite the band’s best efforts, the sound is muddy and distant at best, inaudible at worst, and rarely loud enough to keep the crowd’s attention. It’s tantamount to sabotage, which this reviewer hasn’t entirely been able to rule out – and the poor sound isn’t limited to the movers and shakers’ “Members’ Lounge” on the second level, as one might have thought.
From what could be gathered from sifting through the aural muck, the persistent surfy beat of ‘Brian Eno’ and ‘It’s Working’ survive, just barely. But ‘Someone’s Missing’ and ‘I Found A Whistle’ become little more than background music, and an expurgated version of the new twelve-minute track ‘Siberian Breaks’ (sans the Vangelis coda) seems to drag itself along to a climax that doesn’t arrive – though in this case at least it’s probably less to do with the quality of sound.
Too bashful to wait for the audience to react to some of their new material, the band quickly administers old hits like adrenaline shots, all gratefully received – especially ‘Time to Pretend’ after ‘Siberian Breaks’. The Oracular singles survive the bad mix, partly because no-one’s listening for nuance, if indeed what they’re doing can be called listening. When the band return for their encore, you can feel the momentary excitement fizzle into disappointment when VanWyn straps on an acoustic guitar and plays ‘Congratulations’, with that bass line plodding predictably down, down, down and dragging everyone’s spirits with it. (“Dead in the water” is the first, apt lyric) But then there’s an explosion of energy at their SingStar rendition of ‘Kids’. It’s a rare glimpse of VanWyn and Goldwasser the showmen, liberated from their instruments and leaning forward into the crowd. Pop culture heroes again for five minutes; apparently enjoying it without irony, but with an air of visiting a place they once knew.
For many in the audience, the night will only have confirmed - or seemed to confirm - that MGMT is a three-or-four-hit wonder somewhere near the end of its shelf-life. It’s a shame that the odds were stacked so heavily against them this night, but who knows, maybe by the time they return they’ll have the kind of audience that is prepared to appreciate what they’re - maybe - really about.
Darryn King
(Pics: Despite our photographer Will Reichelt being cleared to take shots all throughout tonight's event, all pictures had to pass the scrutiny of the band. As it was, only six survived the culling process. Six.)
--
"I think it sucks that we’ve made something honest and heartfelt that’s interpreted as intentionally alienating or an attempt to drive people away." - Exclusive MGMT interview coming tomorrow