[Our fearless team, Nicci Boots and Ian McNeil spent three days listening to an obscene amount of fantastic music above the stunning Columbia River Gorge in George, Washington. Check out all our coverage here, over 30 sets from a who's who list of indie music.]
As much as I adore ‘70s glam--via the likes of T. Rex and David Bowie--I was never too keen on the way it seems MGMT blatantly rips them off. Despite this, I’m a fan of some of their work, but have heard their songs so much I don’t know if I can say I’m a true fan. Their newest album feels like they’re trying to slow things down in order to be taken more seriously, and I think that’s a bad idea. The only song from that record that works for me is "Congratulations," and it’s already starting to get on my nerves.
So my expectations were pretty low for their set, and it turns out that I was correct to approach it that way. Half of the band seemed a slight terrified at the size of the crowd, while the others were nicely humbled by it. Founders Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser acted detached from the entire experience until the end of the show, when VanWyngarden started throwing fruit at the crowd. Then he held up a piece that had been speared by what appeared to be glow sticks and proclaimed that it signified Sasquatch! Now, I don’t know if I agree with him, but I was grateful he stepped out of his pretentious cloud for a moment to acknowledge the people that have made him filthy rich.
I say most of this with disdain because I have a tough time assuming MGMT will go that far with their career. They’ve got a legitimate chance, but it will only work out if they step off their high horse and stop copying music from the past.