Mitski Is a Mesmerizing Study in Movement, and in Pedal-Steel Pop, at L.A.’s Shrine: Concert Review
03.04.2024 - 05:07
/ variety.com
Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Mitski is such a cerebral record-maker that I didn’t expect to be coming away from her 2024 shows making proclamations that I might have just seen the best-choreographed tour of the year. But it’s true: Her run of three shows at L.A.’s Shine Auditorium was the kind of unexpected, advanced study in movement that couldn’t possibly be guessed just from listening to her records — the latest and best of which was last year’s pretty heady “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We.” Just to be clear, invoking choreography here doesn’t mean Mitski brought along a herd of backup hoofers, which would be unbecoming for an erstwhile indie-rocker, if de rigueur for the pop stars she may also be reasonably rated against now.
The dancing is hers, all hers, as she singer spends her full 90 minutes on stage striking poses and being moved by the music in programmatic but viscerally engaging ways. You could say she’s got a healthy amount of David Byrne in her, almost irrespective of the fact that the two of them collaborated and shared a best song Oscar nomination last year.
Like Byrne, she can be a slippery person, but she’s on terra firma when it comes to rooting her live presentation in dance. Not that the 2024 Mitski setlist wouldn’t still come off just fine if she presented it in a more or less still-life format.
This latest album is a departure for her, with music that feels big and orchestrated, a little bit classic-country, and fairly reverb-y, in what adds up to slightly spooky beauty. The songs sounds like they were meant to be played at the “Twin Peaks” roadhouse bar or, barring that un-reality, then in a really huge room, where the sound can bounce around a little and you
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