The Danes have taken over Manchester, well for tonight anyway. The only support band tonight, ?Choir Of Young Believers? seem incredibly polite and even Sam Beam (Iron and Wine) has to be impressed with Jannis’ beard. The band play a 6 song set. They give an accomplished set despite being very much low key to what we can expect from Mew later. Jannis does clearly have a presence on stage and his pretty delivery works well with the simple melodies (by no means a criticism). The crowd despite this show not being sold out is at a good number and they give a enthusiastically polite applause after each song tonight. They may even have won a few new fans.
It’s clear when you see the huge projector by the sound desk, almost as soon as you walk into the venue tonight that Mew have a ‘big’ show planned tonight and despite not being the biggest Mew fan I’m really excited to see how a band experienced as them by now come across. There were no disappointments! The band open up with a collection of their most famous songs from their first two Sony releases with 156 being a surprising early highlight. Even early on though its clear the projection of images behind the band is a prevalent part of the whole Mew experience. The most bizarre thing about tonight is when after just 6 songs the entire band disappear? In line with the ?Intermissions? the latest album presents? Anyway, the band later return to an obvious applause and go straight into ?Beach?. The drumming (don’t make me type his name) really comes through well in this track however through out the set the harmonies between Jonas’ vocals and Bo’s guitar work are truly excellent. The band later head into ?Sometimes Life Isn’t Easy? and ?White Lips Kissed? which were without doubt two of the favourites with the crowd tonight. Rightfully so!
The predictable 3 encores soon follow before leaving many Mancunians tonight very satisfied having seen a band at the height of the powers and delivering a show that wouldn’t have felt misplaced at a much larger venue. Probably the ‘biggest’ performance I’ve seen at this venue.
Jamie