Mew are headlining this year’s Truck Festival in Hill Farm, Steventon. Truck Festival is one of United Kingdom’s longest standing (13th consecutive year) independent music festivals, and it’s as small as they come (with approximately 5000 attendees). The festival takes place on July 23rd to July 25th and Mew take the stage on the 24th, tickets are on sale now.

EDIT: According to Truck’s website, this will be their only UK show this summer.

Do you remember that the song Hawaii had completely different visuals when Mew first started playing it live? Then the animation quickly changed and became the one where the joyful reindeer skulled dancers fill the screen. Jonas Bjerre, now back in Copenhagen, explained us something about the replacement in Hawaii and about the new added visuals for Tricks of the Trade (that premiered in Japan last weekend).

“I was able to finish editing the visuals for Tricks of the Trade on the plane to Tokyo. It consists of some of the un-used material that the Bacon team delivered to us when we first started rehearsals for touring No More Stories. The three directors Martin de Thurah, Lasse Martinussen and Adam Hashemi made all the music videos, but also contributed to the live visuals. The majority is still made by me, but they gave us material for the live visuals for Beach, and also the girls in Hawaii (which I think are beautiful onto themselves but I felt they were a bit too static for the song, so I later replaced them with the reindeer dancers) and now Tricks of the Trade. They’ve created an astonishing body of work for us, with very little time to do so. They are brilliant guys, and they’ve got an incredible team at Bacon.”

“I filmed myself dancing in an esoteric robe, wearing a mask with tracking marks on it. I then stop-frame animated the skull, the bottom jaw and the antlers are made from hardened fimo clay, the upper bit is made from a tough white playdough, so that I was able to open and close its mouth. I made two different sets of antlers, for variation. Lastly, I tracked the skulls onto the heads of the dancers using the tracking marks (as shown above). And finished off with some out-of-focus dust patterns in various colours, and some lighting effects. Ta-dah!”

We mentioned in our latest live show review that the visuals for Cartoons and Macramé Wounds do not look finalized and that they should’ve been more “cartoonish”.

“I too favor the visuals that have characters and perhaps a bit more storytelling. Although I believe there is something to be said for the more abstract/pattern-based visuals as they take up less of the focus and leave space for the performance itself. As you know, animation is very time consuming. Time, it’s the one thing we all eventually run out of.”

There have also been frequent questions about the very talented brothers Quay and if Jonas has collaborated with them somehow.

“I did work briefly with the brothers Quay, but that was a long time ago, and it wasn’t in any creative capacity. I did some “touch-ups” on their project In Absentia which was a collaboration between them and the late German composer Karl-Heinz Stockhausen. I merely removed some hairs from the gate, a bit of dust here and there, nothing fancy. I’m not sure I’m even included in the credits. I did enjoy talking to the brothers though, they seemed like really nice people and I enjoy their work tremendously, seems to me they are carrying on the legacy of Jan Švankmajer.”

House of Culture / Helsinki, Finland (February 16th, 2010)
Pakkahuone / Tampere, Finland (February 17th, 2010)

After the two successful Norwegian shows, it was Finland’s turn once again. First up was the sold out show in Finland’s capital city Helsinki, and more specifically at the 1400-capacity Kulttuuritalo (House of Culture) where Mew previously played two consecutive shows in March 2006 (tickets for those shows sold out in record time). Known for its architecture, Helsinki had them perform in this legendary venue designed by the world-famous Alvar Aalto. The venue also sets some challenges for visual bands like Mew for it’s mainly meant for classical performances. Its ceiling is all white and therefore Mew decided to cover that with visuals from time to time. Some backdrops (including Bamse) were projected above the audience and when they were not, you could see the band members’ shadows rocking the ceiling. It looked absolutely wonderful. The sound was great except in the very beginning where you could barely hear Jonas Bjerre’s singing voice. That was fixed after two or three songs. The warm-up band Taxi Taxi! (from Sweden) were not that lucky. Their sound was off most of their 30-minute set. House of Culture is not a perfect venue for Mew but it’s good, and as Bo Madsen pointed out later in the show, it sure beats “the fucking Old Ice Hall” any time. I thought their November show at that massive ice hall was the worst show I’ve ever seen by them… and I have seen quite a bit.

Just like in Oslo a few days earlier, the show in Helsinki kicked off with Snow Brigade which works surprisingly well as the first track. In Nordic countries this song seems to be one of the ultimate fan favourites (especially for younger females) so they made the audience jump, dance and scream from the very beginning. In fact, the show was extremely upbeat for the first five tracks (that included Hawaii and Introducing Palace Players) until Silas the Magic Car slowed it down a bit. This is the same spot where White Lips Kissed usually calmed the audience down, but that song has been absent for a while now.

The setlists have been so great and different from show to show lately. Apparently it takes three international album releases to make that happen. Remember that it was pretty much the same set every show just a couple of years ago. I would bravely call Helsinki’s setlist the best I have attended yet – even without Comforting Sounds. Or was it because the lack of that epic song? I think Mew are trying to make their most precious song a rarity rather than an obvious finale. I would love that… you would have to earn it. Louise Louisa is a wonderful finale, but is it a mean ending? Can you let people leave the venue feeling so sad? Hey, it’s sad anyway, cause it’s over – isn’t it? Before the final song, we (here at MewX.info) got a very personal shout from Mew, and a few moments earlier a lot of people had left the venue thinking there was only one encore. They quickly rushed back, and they know now that Mew can do two of them encores. When Louise Louisa was over, everyone knew that there will be no Comforting Sounds and this was the first time in Finnish history that they didn’t play it.

Let’s go back to the actual set that ended with the amazing Cartoons and Macramé Wounds. A song that challenges Comforting Sounds in pure epicness. It works so much better live than on the record and it’s a tad longer even clocking in at eight minutes. They have backdrops for the song, but they don’t feel final to me. I always imagined this song having a more… well… cartoonish visuals. Maybe they will change in time. I saw people hugging strangers during this song and Finns are often not known for this kind of affection. We are more reserved than that. Before this song they played another new track (that premiered in Oslo). Tricks of the Trade had no visuals, but it doesn’t need any. It’s a dance song. Unfortunately Cartoons and Macramé Wounds wiped the floor with it. Maybe they should play Tricks of the Trade way before in the set to make it more powerful (or later, like in Tampere). Bastian Juel also took a rather surprising center stage at one point and he should do it more often for his presence looks great.

Mew were exceptionally chatty during this set. Jonas spoke some Finnish in perfect accent: “On kiva olla Suomessa taas” (”It’s great to be in Finland again“) and they mentioned Finnish being a very difficult language, but also a very beautiful one. In the beginning of the first encore, Bo played the intro for Special very differently, intentionally or not. He stopped after a minute or so and said that it sounded so good that he wants to play it again. Naturally, Silas Graae stopped playing here, too (smiling back at Bo). The second time it sounded more familiar to us.

Helsinki setlist:

Snow Brigade / Hawaii / Circuitry of the Wolf / Chinaberry Tree / Introducing Palace Players / Silas the Magic Car / Apocalypso / Saviours of Jazz Ballet / Bamse / Uda Pruda / Beach / Am I Wry? No / 156 / Repeaterbeater / Sometimes Life Isn’t Easy / Tricks of the Trade / Cartoons and Macramé Wounds —– Special / The Zookeeper’s Boy —– Louise Louisa

While Helsinki had the better setlist, Tampere had the better venue. The 1200-capacity Pakkahuone has an atmosphere that may feel cold, but at least it’s dark enough for Mew. Maybe too dark even, since the Danes are overusing their lights a bit. I was practically blind for twenty seconds in the beginning of the set. I also like the fact that they don’t rely on backdrops alone… just beware if you suffer from epilepsy. The audience was more mature in Tampere, but that’s because the venue was divided in two areas. The other for adults with alcohol sale rights and the smaller area for people from 15 to 17. In Helsinki the show was for all ages. The audience was definitely better in Tampere (located some 200 kilometers north of Helsinki) and the show itself was close to being sold out.

Comforting Sounds made a glorious return after so many consecutive shows where it had been absent (in America and Norway, too), and it turned out to be such an emotional version. Bo was smiling throughout the guitar intro. They also played Medley where Jonas messed up a little. Before the song he told a little story of how they played this venue the first time almost eight years ago, they were supporting Kent, and the Swedes dared him to drink a bottle of vodka resulting to a hangover which was not going to be the case this night.  Reprise made its debut on Finland’s soil here and I would also like to mention the head-spinning owl that could be seen during intermission. This magnificent creature was projected on one of the smaller screens on stage (in Helsinki on the ceiling as well) and made me think of Twin Peaks (Mew are David Lynch fans after all). They also have a short instrumental song called Owl and it looked like the animal’s purpose was to watch over their equipment while they are backstage… and/or to watch over the fans… and/or to tell the audience that they are not quite finished yet. That little visual addition is absolutely adorable and I’m pretty sure I also saw a glimpse of it in London last November.

Finland may be freezing cold this time of year, but Mew warms the air. Nick Watts told me later that they thought both gigs were exceptionally good, but I still preferred the latter, just for the intense atmosphere alone. It’s great that Mew are so well-received in Finland, Norway and their home country Denmark. I guess, we are the lucky ones.

PS: The 4GB memory stick contains a full live recording of their show from Java Rockin’Land held in Jakarta, Indonesia last year.

Tampere setlist:

Introducing Palace Players / Special / The Zookeeper’s Boy / Am I Wry? No / 156 / Repeaterbeater / Sometimes Life Isn’t Easy / Hawaii / Medley / Cartoons and Macramé Wounds / Snow Brigade / Apocalypso / Saviours of Jazz Ballet / Bamse / Reprise —– Beach / Tricks of the Trade / Comforting Sounds

Written by Tero Heikkinen
Photos by Pete Heikkilä

(All photos are from the Helsinki show and we will publish more of them in our Gallery / Media -section shortly. If you wish to use them, please do so, but give us credit).

Mew played an amazing show in Helsinki, Finland last Tuesday and just before the last song (Louise, Louisa) they took a little moment to mention this website and how we are more up to date than any of their own sites. That was one glorious moment. What they couldn’t know then is that we have changed some of our features since. The intro-page and the background in general look a bit different and we even adopted the “Mew-font”, plus there will be other changes made in the coming days. The biggest difference compared to last week’s version is that we are English-only fansite from now on. We noticed that people almost never commented on the Finnish and Danish posts, and people in these two small countries (population-wise) understand English fairly well anyway. There are many contributors here and we are all fans of this group from Copenhagen… I especially want to thank Frederik Voss for seeing all the trouble to translate all the posts in Danish, but now we have more time to concentrate on other special features… and there will be some very soon.

Mew also mentioned us on Twitter and as there might be some new readers coming here soon, I want to welcome all of you. You may also throw us a comment and tell us what you think we should have here (there’s some contact info below the page)… We will return with extensive reviews from both Finnish shows (Helsinki and Tampere) accompanied by some exclusive photos.

Tero / admin @ MewX.info

The short tour of only eight gigs – now called Slick Monsters Tour 2010 – kicked off yesterday from Trondheim, Norway and today is Oslo’s turn. Finland next and then Japan. Make sure that you buy the new tour shirt that contains the dates for these three countries. Yesterday’s 90-minute show was played without Comforting Sounds and it is the first time in Norwegian history that the setlist lacked this epic song. In Finland Mew have always played Comforting Sounds as the last track… we’ll see what happens this time around. Cartoons and Macramé Wounds made an epic return when Mew have played it only once before in Costa Mesa, California.

Trondheim setlist (as we know it):

Intro / Circuitry of the Wolf / Chinaberry Tree / Introducing Palace Players / Special (Long) / The Zookeeper’s Boy / Am I Wry? No / 156 / Repeaterbeater / Medley (of New Terrain, Nervous and She Came Home for Christmas) / Cartoons and Macramé Wounds / Hawaii / Sometimes Life Isn’t Easy / Snow Brigade —– Beach / Apocalypso / Saviours of Jazz Ballet / Bamse —– Louise Louisa

We will be back with an extensive review of the Oslo show. Stay tuned.

Mew have been announced to this summer’s Bukta Festival in Tromsø (July 15th-July17th). They have played these festivities before in 2006 and have been in great demand by the public ever since. A rising new festival called Slottsfjell (in Tønsberg) will announce more bands today and Mew will be among the new names. This festival will take place on same weekdays as Bukta (July 15th-July 17th), but geographically Tromsø is located very up north whereas Tønsberg is some 1500km south from there. Norway is big that way. Exact dates are yet unknown, but we will frequently update our ‘upcoming gigs’ -section.

So, now we’re looking at two dates for Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Let’s see if Finland gets a summer festival date as well. There’s one for United States (Coachella) while Bonnaroo is yet to be confirmed. The latter should be factual information anyway. What other countries might get festival shows? United Kingdom probably…

And… if you’ve been wondering why we haven’t updated the Danish and Finnish versions of this site recently, it’s because we are going through some major changes and will return bigger and better. Watch out for this English language version still. There will be great new updates coming up shortly.

Apparatjik, WMF Club Berlin (Berlin, Germany, February 1st 2010)

With all the mysterious hints of what the show would be like, I still didn’t really have a clue of what the show would be alike. Bauhaus, cubism, music and visuals combined with technique and science. Some said the guys would be performing inside a cube with visual projections.

Even though I had no idea of what to expect from the show, it was everything that I expected. It was also what I had wished for.

The show was on the second level of the venue. We waited a bit in a room with big square room inside of it. A white screen in front of that place made me think that Apparatjik would be inside and that they would be projected onto that screen. But right before the show we were led into the square like room. Inside was a two by two meter big cube, the exact same thing as we could find on their website earlier. The cube consisted of four initial white screens with the sides of the cube projected on them. Okay, so no way that the guys would be in that cube, I thought. But when the show started we were treated with animations as we have seen before on their myspace and facebook account and mixed within these projected animations were the shadows of the guys who were actually standing inside the cube and mostly joyful dancing around while they were playing their music. It was as chaotic as I describe it. To add up to this, they wore antlers, cubes and other undefined objects on their heads. They were clearly enjoying what they were doing. It was fun. The animations would sometimes become so scary that they made my sister scream, but she loved to get scared like that. The show was great, it converted my sister who I just dragged along – she didn’t like Apparatjik before – into a fan by both the show and some new and very enjoyable tunes they performed.

Apparatjik enjoyed the show, we enjoyed the show. It was a successful and joyful evening. Well worth for driving through two snowstorms.

Now… some YouTube-videos. The sound is really bad, but take a look at the visuals here, here and here. Plus some high quality video clips from this user.

Kim Vermeer

Apparatjik have released their debut album We Are Here and it’s available for purchase here. Once you have ordered the CD/DVD, you immediately get access to the songs. Here’s the video for Antlers.

01. Deadbeat (2:52)
02. Datascroller (2:57)
03. Snow Crystals (4:32)
04. Supersonic Sound (3:32)
05. Arrow and Bow (4:19)
06. In a Quiet Corner (3:34)
07. Josie (3:29)
08. Antlers (3:20)
09. Electric Eye (6:02)
10. Look Kids (4:52)
11. Quiz Show (2:33)