Mew Fit For Bigger Venue

Danish shoegazers Mew have been keen to raise their profile in North America this past year.

With gigs at Toronto's Virgin Festival and opening for Nine Inch Nails, one would expect a venue full of curious onlookers. But their Mod Club show this past Sunday was packed to the rafters with fans who have obviously loved them for years.

Guelph, Ont.'s The D'Urbervilles were a perfect start to the evening. With appropriately fuzzy guitars and frantic beats, no section of the crowd wandered off uninterested.

All four members of the band were squished into a 10x5 ft. section near the front of the stage, with barely enough room to stand side by side with their instruments.

This didn't seem to hinder singer John O'Regan's performance. Channeling Morrissey circa 1983, he preened over the edge of the stage, posing his arms like detachable antlers, his voice a clear baritone. All the more endearing was his transformation as the band left the stage: thick-rimmed glasses and a backpack full of pedals rendered him unrecognizable.

Mew took the stage to thunderous applause. After "Am I Wry? No," and wasted no time in filling the tiny room with lush guitars and stomping rhythms.

The intricately layered sound of their albums translated remarkably well to their live show, heard especially in the repeatedly tempo-changing "Introducing Palace Players." All the bits were present, from the whine of synthesizers to the rattle of exotic hand percussion.

While all the band members were in top form, singer Jonas Bjerre's soaring vocals stole the show. He sustained a pitch perfect falsetto for most of the night and completely transformed his voice into something 12 octaves lower during "Silas The Magic Car." For the longest time, I thought it was sung by a different band member.

Still, the most special part of the show was the audience's sheer joy. Every lyric was enthusiastically shouted back at the band, and the ground shook in harmony with the music. They easily could have filled a venue twice as large.

Here is what Mew played:

"Intro"
"Hymn"
"Am I Wry? No"
"156"
"Special (Long)"
"The Zookeeper's Boy"
"Introducing Palace Players"
"Repeaterbeater"
"Hawaii"
"Sometimes Life Isn't Easy"
"Beach"
"Silas The Magic Car"
"Apocalypso"
"Saviours Of Jazz Ballet (Fear Me, December)"
"Bear"

Encore:
"Louise Louisa"
"Comforting Sounds"