MGMT band in Leeds....[1] [2]
[3] [4]
and
also Elton John here, but by playing live MGMT certainly put their
own sound and element to ‘Pieces of What’.
After
playing almost all the songs off the album, the band begin playing
some experimental music, which can only be described as ‘so
MGMT’ with its psychedelic rock and synth pop, before they
break into a new song. Unfortunately it fails to grasp the attention of the crowd
unlike its predecessors—maybe it’s just down to the fact that the
song goes on for a lengthy six minutes and is lost upon the crowd. Alas, they
have not been forgotten about yet, when the music suddenly churns into the beginning
of ‘The Handshake’, one of the strongest and most energetic tracks
on the album. Beginning off slowly with a hint of electronica, it picks up by
the bridge and becomes a screech of musical noise by the chorus, with the questionable
lyric “We’ve got the handshake under our tongue.” Just
what exactly this means is anybody’s guess but it doesn’t matter
here tonight, because the crowd are jumping along to the stomping guitars and
drums making up ‘The Handshake’.
With
a huge thank you to the crowd, MGMT disappear backstage and the crowd suddenly
becoming agitated, calling for the band to return for an encore. The technicians
are once again on the stage, rearranging the instruments. So is there going to
be an encore or not? Of course there is. Five minutes later MGMT have returned,
and picking up guitar, bass, drumsticks and flicking the switch once again on
the keyboard, the first catchy chords of ‘Kids’ begins
up and the audience screams. Like the opening to ‘Time to Pretend’,
the band keep the opening chords of ‘Kids’ going for as long as possible,
before Andrew Van Wyn Garden puts down his guitar and concentrates solely on
the singing. With the crowd singing along to “Control yourself, take only
what you need from it”, everyone here knows the song word by word, since
it’s been in a high position in the music charts for weeks. As MGMT manage
to repeat the chorus plenty of times, the crowd never tire of it, still continuing
to sing along. Then with one last clash of the chords, the music finishes, the
crowd are cheering and clapping, and MGMT bid a good night and farewell.
The
main lights flickering back on in the room once again, there is a push towards
the door as people talk amongst each other about how incredible the night was.
Back outside, the crowd are greeted by the bitter cold of Leeds on a dark Bonfire
Night, falling back into the reality away from the music. Yet just for an hour
and a half, we were all caught up in the fantasy world of MGMT, a world which
they are just so keen to share with us.
Gallivanting in the Lake District >