An Exceptional Evening With Mitski at Club Soda

By: Sun Noor

After kicking off the much anticipated North American leg of her tour a few nights ago, Mitski made her well awaited return to Montreal in support of her latest masterpiece and it was quite the experience. The artist brought the audience into the grandiose, complex and slightly melancholic world Be the Cowboy, transmitting those emotions onto a large group of people that resonated with the record without a doubt. As well, the New York based pop duo, Overcoats joined her on tour for this leg.

Mitski’s performance was largely focused towards her, which explained the minimalist background consisting of two large screens playing visuals. The lighting was also and plenty of darker lights aside from the beaming light that hovered above her, complimenting the thick cloud of smoke following along the stage. As well, Mitski incorporated certain horn instruments and more piano on this record, meaning she had quite a few more musicians playing with her. Although she usually played quite a bit of guitar on stage, she refrained from that on this tour and focused on the whole performance aspect. Despite this new arrangement being exceedingly different to her previous gigs with the addition of simple choreography, she still appeared as the perfect storyteller to such an attentive audience. There were moments where Mitski wandered about the stage, danced while sitting on a chair and also perform a short sequence of dance moves, which really suited the collection of songs she chose to play. It was almost as though she incorporated some aspects of performance art into her show which was quite brilliant!Towards the end of her set, Mitski exclaimed “Sorry, I’ve never been good at banter” in a timid voice while thanking the myriad of voices screaming “I love you,” throughout each pause. Although changes occur quite often in terms of her live performances, she continues to be increasingly innovative as time passes, leaving something to look forward to each time.