After
Gang of Four and October Drift last year, here’s another farewell to a beloved
band…
For a brief incandescent period in the early noughties, Denmark’s Mew were just about the best there was. Inveigling themselves into our listening fashion with a frankly astonishing single in “Am I Wry? No” and accompanying album “Frengers”, they owned 2003 with an unique and oft-unpigeonhole-able sound, blending elements from shoegaze, dreampop, grunge and even (hush my mouth) prog into a captivating and oft-symphonic mix, topped by vocalist Jonas Bjerre’s clear, high-register choirboy tones. Plenty of incredible gigs and another superb album followed, before they crashed and burned with their frankly awful 2009 “No More Stories” album, their hitherto delicate touch (possibly influenced by the temporary absence of bassist and fellow guiding light Johan Wohlert) instead smothered with swathes of indistinct synth noise. Johan’s return and a couple of subsequent redemptive albums mostly restored our faith, thankfully, but they’d been absent from my Dance Card since a technically-beset 2017 Trinity gig (gig 1,039). When this date was announced as part of a farewell tour, however, I wasn’t about to miss one last chance to hopefully be dazzled by my early noughties fave…
Tim was up for it too, and a couple of old gig friends booked as well, promising good company both on and off stage! Then Jonas lost his voice, prompting a postponement from the original November 2025 date to tonight, making it their actual last date! A real event in prospect then, as we headed off down a sodden M4, parking in Osterley and tubing over to Camden. Met up with old gig friend no. 1, namely Welsh Mel, for a chat and catch-up in the Enterprise pub opposite, before we entered the Roundhouse’s cavernous confines and grabbed a spot a few rows back, house right. Support The Pale White were on at 7.45; like my previous viewing on the Pixies undercard in 2024 (gig 1,318), their set was predominantly soporific and morose slo-grunge, with a couple of more driving and upbeat Foos-esque numbers to throw some sharp relief. Their closer, “Final Exit”, a melodic harmony-overlaid powerpop choon, was their best by a million miles, otherwise their enthusiastic drummer’s Animal-esque antics were once again their strongest suit…
Took
a wander around the rapidly-filling venue and met up with old gig friend no. 2;
none other than 80’s friend Lester Noel! I’d seen Lest a bunch of times in the
late 80’s with his splendid C86-influenced jangle pop charges North Of
Cornwallis, enjoyed a letter correspondence with him (that’s how we did it back
then, email kids…) and seen him out and about at a few gigs, but our paths
hadn’t actually crossed for 36 years except via facebook. The years fell away
as we caught up, and I was introduced to his son Callum. Made my way back over
to Tim as the lights dimmed at 8.45 and Mew took the stage to a suitably
elegiac opener, before the twinkling opening of “Satellite” ceded to it’s dark,
pounding funk verse base and shimmering chorus, Jonas’ wide-eyed angelic tones
already a feature. The angular and equally funky stomp of “Special” then segued
into the herky-jerky intro to “Zookeeper’s Boy”, the storm clouds as ever
parting for its majestic and soaring hook, accompanied as usual by the offbeat
backdrop films featuring cracked porcelain dolls, Beatrix Potter animals and
slightly macabre superimposed faces. “Tonight is our very last show,” announced
Johan at its conclusion, “it’s weird but thank you for sharing it with us!”
“Sharing” seemed quite an apposite phrase; this indeed was a shared experience, the band feeding off the reverential acclaim of this devoted audience and delivering a hard-edged and muscular yet conversely deft, delicate and precise career-spanning performance. Not perfect by any means; a few numbers immediately following “Zookeepers” merged muddily into each other in a slightly unnerving throwback to that poor “No More Stories” gig in 2009 (gig 774), and throughout the gig, Jonas’ voice very occasionally sounded a little husky in the lower register, perhaps a legacy of his recent voice issues… However when Mew hit the heights tonight (which was more often than not) they recalled those dazzling “holy shit!” moments of their 2003-2006 “live” pomp. Newie (?) “Gliding” was elegiac and hymnal, returning to that delicate touch; the harsh sheet-metallic opening of “Snow Brigade” led into a cascading and thrilling tumble of sound; “Symmetry” cleared the air with a haunting and stark vocal duet between Jonas and Becky Jarrett, projected onto the backdrop screen; and whilst “Apocalypso” felt a little crushingly heavy-handed, the loud-quiet dramatics of “She Spider” built to an careering and undulating crescendo, before set closer “Rows” again built from a hushed, slow-burn opening into a soaring and stately outro.
“[This
is] our first single; everyone thought we were crazy!” announced Johan before
the urgent, almost punk rock encore “I Should Have Been A Tsin-Tsi For You”,
accompanied by lurid dayglo pandas on the backdrop; then the highlight of the
night for me, the crashing intro to “Am I Wry? No” heralding a sweeping,
stately and utterly magnificent version of Mew’s mood- and tempo-changing high
watermark. Thanks and compliments from the band during the slow-burn, brooding
intro to closer “Comforting Sounds”, before the song burst into life and built
to a lengthy, symphonic instrumental outro, one final crashing and thrilling
crescendo of noise rounding off proceedings, the band then taking a lengthy and
deserved bow.
Squirmed my way to a barrier spot and was handed Johan’s setlist – a huge 4 pager! Even with the glasses, Johan…? Unsurprisingly, I was stopped multiple times on the way out by fellow punters for a pic of said manuscript, before a smoother than anticipated tube journey and thankfully unimpeded drive home (no moving roadblocks this time!) saw Tim drop me off just after 1. On reflection, and despite a few bumps in the road, this really was a special one, both on and off stage. If this is really farewell to Mew (and indications from the stage were a little contradictory at times) then this was a brilliantly apt and entirely fitting eulogy to a very beloved band. Thank you Mew, we’ll miss you!
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