With a stage presence and an energy resonating beyond their years, MGMT brought a five-piece band to help span their brief, yet polarizing discography at Milwaukee’s Riverside Theater June 20th.
Drawing material from their early EPs through their latest album, Congratulations, the set kicked off with the little known “Destrokk” from the 2008 EP Time to Pretend.
“The Youth” provided glimpses of what would soon become an eye-catching light show fit for the Acid Tests when scrolling black and white images of children cascaded across strobe-infested screens.
Eventually turning to their newer material, the band played through the psychedelia of “Someone’s Missing,” and the first single from Congratulations, “Flash Delirium.”
Finally showing some sign of life, the crowd started to warm up for “Electric Feel.” The real highlights, however, were not the fan favorites and hits – which the band played with an aura of hesitant obligation – but rather jangly new efforts like “Brian Eno” and “Dan Tracey.”
This isn’t to suggest the set skimped on their more popular material, or MGMT standards. The second half of the nearly two-hour set found MGMT playing, “Weekend Wars,” “Time to Pretend,” and a mind shattering, extended version of “The Handshake,” which saw lights and music working together with surreal images, creating the set’s most engaging moment.
After a brief departure, MGMT returned to the stage – with opening act, Tame Impala – for an encore performance of “Kids.” The song saw the group trade in their guitars, drums, and keyboards for maracas and tambourines as they danced around stage singing to a pre-recorded track.
The fan energy, uniqueness, and overwhelming fun of the performance more than made up for the fact that they didn’t actually play their best-known song.
Also played during the encore was the nearly 14-minute EP “Metanoia,” in its entirety. The seldom-played track was lost on the crowd still recovering from the party that was the “Kids” performance, and was nearly silent for the duration.
Closing out the encore was title track “Congratulations,” which re-energized the audience and ended the performance.
The set was mostly predictable, but offered a few surprises. Among them was how well the oft-criticized new material stood up against the pop-successes of Oracular Spectacular. The new songs brought extreme energy and variety to the already, for lack of a better word, spectacular set list.