Under New MGMT

On Sunday night, I was one of the lucky few 500 people to get tickets to the Kia-sponsored free MGMT show. It was my third time seeing the band and, once again, they did not disappoint. In a tight, hourlong set they managed to squeeze in all of the best songs from Oracular Spectacular along with four new songs from the upcoming album 'Congratulations.' This rumor mill provides more detail on that, and the youtube dot com has some medium quality live footage of the new jams which I shall lank below.

The band opened with a what I think is Flash Delirium (no youtube video), one of my favorites from the new songs. I could have sworn that the steady wall of noise opening was going to lead into this classic. 'Song For Dan Treacy' has a strong Smiths feel to it. My least favorite was the progish 'It's Working.' It doesn't really come through in the clip, but I kind of felt a weird Charlie Daniels inspired by Kashmir/early Beatles vibe. They encored with the title track 'Congratulations.' As you can hear, it's a bit of a departure for the band. I felt it's pacing and melody to be kind of Lennon-esque. The final song of the encore was 'The Handshake' which is absolutely stunning live. Their guitar player adds so much to this band live and really puts on a show when it's his turn. If you haven't yet seen the MGMT, be sure to nab some tickets the next time they come through. Even if it's not free.

P.S. As promised in my last entry, I promise to post some new reviews soon. And as always, commentary is strongly encouraged.