Fresh off a show at Sasquatch Music Festival and in the midst of a summer long national tour, MGMT played not one, but two sold out nights at Portland’s Crystal Ballroom. Considering the venue has a capacity of 1,500 people, that is quite a feat for any band. Sometimes, however, the hype doesn’t always reflect the performance.
Tame Impala opened the show with grungy, psychedelic vibes and heavy doses of power chords, seeming very much a rock band. The first two songs on their set were a good opener for the show. With each coming in it at about four minutes, the band’s feedback-heavy psychedelic sound was given much needed structure to balance out their wandering instrumentals.
From there, however, it went downhill. Tame Impala, to put it lightly, isn’t the most engaging band, and this was the wrong venue for them. Spaces like the Crystal demand some showmanship, or at least a bit of connection with the audience, and this band just didn’t have that. They would have done well in a smaller, more intimate space.
Their music certainly isn’t bad, but after their first few songs, they waded deep into the territory of “jam band.” As the structure fell away from their music and the jamming took over, things got sloppy. At the start of their set, these guys seemed to have mastered the perfect amount of reverb in their sound. It was just enough to add a little grunge to their instrumentation, but not enough to make you cringe. Halfway through the set, the same could not be said of their sound. Too-loud rushing noise and high-pitched feedback that made you physically flinch took over, as did some overly nasal vocals from their lead singer.
Following this foray in to the psychedelic, MGMT took the stage to a packed room and shrill waves of cheering. From the get-go, their sound was stellar, even in the face of the less-than-ideal acoustics provided by the Crystal Ballroom. They started their set with “Someone’s Missing,” a falsetto laden tune off their newest album, Congratulations, that breaks into an almost Beatles-like anthem of a chorus. Following this dreamy little opener, MGMT played “Electric Feel,” one of the songs they’ve become known for by fans. Well-executed and still sounding somewhat clean, the song tripped itself up a little bit of the way through with what were either some wrong notes from keyboardist Ben Goldwasser or a very sloppy attempt at improvising.
By this point, talking in the audience had quieted down significantly, and more people than ever were dancing and cheering. The odd thing about the increasing enthusiasm in the room, though, was that the band itself looked like they couldn’t have been less thrilled to be there. In fact, with the exception of singer Andrew VanWyngarden and guitarist James Richardson, most of the band spent the bulk of the show standing stoically still at their mics, focusing hard on playing their instruments. You have to give props to a band so intent on playing well when there are a lot of performers who jump around at the expense of their sound, but MGMT’s performance still does leave something to be desired. It’s not about theatrics.
There are those that would argue that bands don’t need to do anything except play well when they get up on-stage, and in some cases, that does work. In MGMT’s case though, there was just a general lack of enthusiasm. Maybe they were tired or maybe, again, the venue’s large size and generally cold, disconnected feeling were working against them. Regardless, it would have been nice to see a bit more heart and a bit more of a connection with the audience. Maybe the show would have been less boring if the band had seemed like they actually wanted to be there.
MGMT ended up playing most of the show in this weirdly pleasant-sounding but disconnected haze, making it seem like 1,500 people had gotten together in a giant room and turned up an MGMT album really loud. The band finished out their set by picking up the energy a bit, but the only time they all really came to life was when they played “Kids” for their final song during the encore. Not only did they all suddenly burst to life, but also the crowd went insane, bouncing and sweating in a collectively energized mob. It was as if the entire show had been a warm-up for that short but intense moment and they’d just been conserving their energy for that one song.
Tame Impala and MGMT are both great bands that each write their own kind of successfully catchy music. Sadly, they both suffer from a lackluster stage presence—a crime for two such talented groups.
