Mitski performed at Union Transfer in Philly on Sunday, November 18th – she played the same stage just a month ago, but a second date was added due to overwhelming demand. Mitski is still fresh off the release of her amazing Be The Cowboy LP, a follow-up to 2016’s Puberty 2. With her new album, she also delivers a totally reinvented (and completely unexpected) performance aesthetic. When I last saw her in 2017, Mitski relegated herself to one side of the stage under dim lighting and swapped between guitar and bass. On this tour, she places herself front-and-center and puts more deliberate focus on the visual aspects… including some David Byrne-esque style choreography. She still maintains her powerful and raw stage presence, but the rough edges are smoothed over. She didn’t scream with a mouth-full-of-mic on “A Drunk Walk Home” and surprisingly didn’t perform “My Body’s Made of Crushed Little Stars”.
Choosing to let her lyrics do the talking, her banter was limited but her expression of appreciation for the audience was palpable. She did take a moment to acknowledge the SUNY Purchase contingent in attendance (and its no longer secret Danny DeVito shrine). Before playing “I Will”, she launched into an interpretive dance and casually took a crowd-pleasing sip from her bottle of water (you had to be there). I literally got chills when she sang the first few bars of “I Want You”, which is both uplifting and sorrowful and reminiscent in era and tone to Procul Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale”. She closed out her set on a quiet note with a solo acoustic performance of “A Burning Hill”, before returning for an encore of “Goodbye, My Danish Sweetheart” (see full setlist below).
Mitski is finishing out her North American tour with a 4-night residency at Brooklyn Steel (including 3 nights with Sasami) from 11/30 to 12/3 (FYI, those shows are all sold out).
See her brand new video for “Washing Machine Heart” below and keep scrolling to see more photos from the show including openers Overcoats.
Mitski Setlist:
– Remember My Name
– I Don’t Smoke
– Washing Machine Heart
– First Love / Late Spring
– Francis Forever
– Me and My Husband
– Dan the Dancer
– Once More to See You
– A Pearl
– Thursday Girl
– I Will
– Townie
– Nobody
– I Bet on Losing Dogs
– I Want You
– Your Best American Girl
– Why Didn’t You Stop Me?
– Geyser
– Happy
– Come into the Water
– Drunk Walk Home
– A Burning Hill
Encore
– Goodbye, My Danish Sweetheart
