Riviera Theater, 6/18/10, Chicago, IL
A sold-out crowd of 2,500 people jammed their way into the hot and sweaty venue known as The Riv on the north side of Chicago Friday night to experience one of the hottest acts touring right now, MGMT. Touring in support of their sophomore disc “Congratulations” and continuing to ride the wave of success of “Oracular Spectacular’s hits “Electric Feel,” “Time to Pretend,” and “Kids,” MGMT is touring the country playing both small venues as well as the festival circuit.
I’ll start off by saying this: MGMT could go on a tour where all they play is “Electric Feel,” “Time to Pretend,” and “Kids,” and make an absolute killing. The reaction to those 3 songs alone is why every band gets into music. To make that emotional connection with a crowd. To make a sold-out room completely lose their shit. To make people forget their everyday lives and give them just a few minutes to totally lose themselves. I’ve seen countless acts at The Riv, and the reaction to these songs, especially “Kids” was EXTREMELY impressive.
With that said, I’ll bring up the main point I want to mention, that MGMT are victims of their own success. Because of how massive their hits are, EVERYTHING they ever do will be compared to those 3 songs. No matter how awesome something they make is, it will forever be compared to “Kids.” The reactions to these songs was insane, so much so that the reactions to other songs, including their recent hits “Flash Delirium” and “Brian Eno” are slightly above average. Even popular songs off their first disc like “Pieces of What” and “Weekend Wars” failed to garner the attention and applause they deserve, namely because the crowd was sitting on edge waiting for any of the aforementioned 3 big hits to be played. Because of this, where there shouldn’t have been lulls during their performance, there were lulls. Which leads into another point, that MGMT haven’t quite figured out how to put together a great setlist. They played “I Found a Whistle” and “Siberian Breaks” before “Time to Pretend.” Yes, MGMT’s 2 slowest songs, with the latter being over 12 minutes, before one of their big hits, which was followed up by….”The Youth,” again, one of their slower songs. And that was followed by “Someone’s Missing,” yet ANOTHER slow song. You can’t keep the crowd’s attention and have them eating out of the palm of your hand if you play one of your biggest hits between 4 of your slower numbers. It doesn’t work well. Fans WANT to have their faces rocked off, they want to jump around and participate and throw their glowsticks in the air. And MGMT showed the perfect way to NOT do this at a show.
Another issue I had with the performance. MGMT just didnt seem that into it. You’re playing one of the most well-known venues in Chicago, it’s a sold-out crowd, and it looks like you’re going through the motions up there. With some typical concert banter in between, they looked like they showed up, plugged in, were set on playing the setlist, and going home. It wasn’t until “Kids,” the second to last song of the night, that they finally looked like they were there to entertain, they actually looked interested. And that’s horrible. I’m not shelving out $45 to see you go through the motions. If I wanted to, I could just throw on my iTunes and save $45. I’m looking to be entertained. I want to cheer for you guys, I want to completely go nuts! Give me a reason to!
My friend Craig said it best: If you don’t go to a lot of shows, that was a pretty good show. What does this mean? I’ll put it another way. If you like Italian food, but your only experience at an Italian restaurant is Olive Garden, then it’s pretty good Italian food. But go to a ton of Italian restaurants, and you’ll see that Olive Garden is barely average. Kind of like this show. By going to a million shows a year, I see a ton of great shows and I see a ton of ok shows and I see some average shows. For me, MGMT’s performance Friday night was average, which is disappointing because I love these guys. Hopefully they’ll figure it all out and learn how to put together a great live show. Then again, when 30,000 people are singing and dancing to “Kids” at Lollapalooza this summer, I’m sure everyone will be happy with the performance and all will be forgotten.
Setlist:
Pieces of What
Song For Dan Treacy
Electric Feel
Of Moons, Birds & Monsters
Flash Delirium
Destrokk
It’s Working
Weekend Wars
I Found a Whistle
Siberian Breaks
Time to Pretend
The Youth
Someone’s Missing
The Handshake
Brian Eno
Encore:
Future Reflections
Kids
Congratulations
