Mew are opening for The Flaming Lips in Japan this November. The three shows (in both Osaka and Tokyo) are going to be absolutely amazing, seeing as the Wayne Coyne’s group is one of the best live acts one could think of. You shouldn’t miss these shows…
November 15th – Namba Hatch (Osaka, Japan)
November 17th – Zepp Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan)
November 18th – Zepp Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan)
Provinssirock – Seinäjoki, Finland (June 18th, 2010)
In 2005, then relatively unknown Mew stole the hearts of Finnish festival audience at Provinssirock. Located in the town of Seinäjoki (some 400km north of Helsinki), this festival is one of Finland’s oldest and largest. The 32nd annual Provinssirock gathered approximately 20 000 people on its first day (June 18th) when the main attractions were 30 Seconds to Mars, Mew and Pendulum. Five years ago our beloved Danes performed here in a huge tent that was built this year as well. A lot has happened since then, and Mew have become too big for that venue, so they opened the main stage instead. British singer Paloma Faith had the honours of kicking off the festival (in that tent) and Mew were ready on the main stage just one hour later. Mew started playing at 7:45pm when it’s all daylight in Finland during summertime. Actually, it really doesn’t get dark at all in these latitudes. At 1am that night, the singer of 30 Seconds to Mars, Jared Leto thought it was crazy that the sun doesn’t set.
Let’s talk about the show. All in all, I must say that I was quite disappointed. The sound was absolutely awful in the first 20-30 meters from the stage. It was all bass and you couldn’t hear the vocals. Provinssirock had a new stage, ordered from Denmark, and I’m pretty sure it was the same as the one at Skive Festival just two weeks prior. Finland didn’t have a stage big enough (available) for Rammstein and their massive production. This stage was way too big for Mew in broad daylight, but it would’ve been amazing if they could have used the visuals. To get a better sound, I went further back and it was fine there. Although, the biggest problem at Provinssirock were the weather gods. It had rained heavily right before their show, so it was wet and cold (and muddy). Many fans in wet clothes just stood there, and that reflects back to artists, I’m sure. I was told that Mew looked happy enough on stage. Only, I couldn’t really tell. I had to rely on the video screen, more or less. The cold, the rain and the early slot resulted in a pretty bad turn-out. Looking at the crowd, one might have thought that you were in Sweden. Also, many fans were still queueing for their wristbands, cause the festival had big problems there. There’s an interesting 360 degree photo here. It’s also possible that Mew played so early due to their next show being in Aarhus (Denmark) on the following day.
On Friday it had rained before and after Mew. So, in the way, they were lucky (Saturday was nothing but rain) and the early slot turned out to be a good thing after all. Last time that Mew performed in Finland without the backdrops was in 2003 when they played at Ruisrock for the first time. One reporter from a Finnish tabloid-magazine said in a “news-article” (which was all lies, of course) that Mew’s manager had called the organisers upon arrival, and that he was pissed when he found out that some Finnish band is playing after them. Managers always know lineups before confirmations, no need for such calls. That particular Finnish band playing after Mew was called Lauri Tähkä ja Elonkerjuu and they are a very popular act in Seinäjoki (where they are also from). They are a terrible band, and had to play in the rain. So, in your face, Lauri Tähkä.
Paloma Faith went for a drink or two (or three) just after their own show, so they got to dance to Mew. This YouTube -video also proves that the sound was more than acceptable 200 meters away from the stage. Some fans in the front row had made a huge sheet that demanded Vaccine onto the setlist, I wonder if the band saw that. Mew had also brought the Bamse t-shirts for sale and that was a good thing (even though it’s pointless to play that track without visuals). Well… as you noticed, this is not much of a review. I refuse to review a show that I couldn’t really see, hear or feel… at least, properly.
Provinssirock setlist:
Introducing Palace Players / Snow Brigade / Am I Wry? No / 156 / Hawaii / White Lips Kissed / Sometimes Life Isn’t Easy / Beach / Repeaterbeater / Tricks of the Trade / Apocalypso / Saviours of Jazz Ballet / Comforting Sounds —– Special / The Zookeeper’s Boy
Tero Heikkinen
Photos by Pete Heikkilä
Many of our readers reside in United Kingdom…. and many of them know that the ONLY festival show for Mew in England this summer is the small (independent) Truck Festival in Steventon, Oxfordshire. The 13th year marks the festival’s first event in its teens, so it’s very fitting that one of the main acts is called Teenage Fanclub. The festival organisers – known as Truckers – are very excited to have Mew as their headliner for Saturday, July 24th. Booker Drew Brammer gave us a special link where you may buy a one-day festival ticket before anyone else. He also adds:
“A couple of years back we were lucky enough to have Mew play Oxford, and it was one of the best live shows we’d ever seen, so we knew then that we had to have them play Truck Festival. We’re really excited about exposing them to the Truckers and seeing them in the open air.”
Tickets have sold very well this year, so if you wish to see Mew in England this summer, do not hesitate for too long. Naturally, MewX.info will be reporting the festival.
*****
In other news: today is 15/6, that’s how June 15th is usually presented in Europe. This website opened exactly four years ago (as MewX.org) and the date was not a coincidence back then. The site was originally in Finnish language only (for the first year or so), then there was a gap until we restarted with English, Danish and Finnish. We posted all the news in three languages for a year and a half until we decided to go English only. A decision we have not regretted. We thank all the readers here… the global traffic has been pretty good for a fansite.
Siesta Festival – Hässleholm, Sweden (May 29th, 2010)
Skive Festival – Skive, Denmark (June 2nd, 2010)
Mew kicked off their summer festival tour from the town of Jelling (Denmark) on May 28th and the following day they were already performing in Southern Sweden. Hässleholm is a nice little town only an hour’s drive from Malmö, one of Sweden’s largest cities. Siesta Festival is less than ten years old, but Mew have already played there twice. Reasonably priced tickets attract a lot of young people – in fact, the average age of an attendee is probably no more than 20. Out of the few foreign acts, Mew were one of the most anticipated. One of the reasons may be the fact that they have not played in Sweden since their solo show in Stockholm last November. The capital doesn’t lie the South, at any rate.
Mew jumped on stage at 9:30 pm. After a few tracks it could’ve been dark enough to use the visuals, but they decided not to show them to the Swedes this time around. It was not a particularly large audience, maybe just 3000, though the camping area may account for this. It was located quite far from the actual festival area, and by the third day many must have had blisters on their feet and opted to keep the walking to a minimum.
Once again, they opened with the Scandinavian favourite Snow Brigade, and personally I would have hoped for something else had I known that the show was going to last only for an hour. I have a feeling that Mew wanted to play Comforting Sounds as well, but the drunken Swedish (teen) audience started to walk off after 156, prompting the band to leave it at that. When has that happened before? Interesting choice as the final song, but it certainly kept you craving for more. Swirlies frontman Damon Tutunjian helped the band on bass during Introducing Palace Players, but that was a very brief moment (in Norway’s Quart Festival he did more just about three years ago). Overall, this show was one of the most passionless shows I’ve seen by Mew, an exact opposite of what would be waiting for us in Denmark a few days later.
Siesta Festival setlist:
Snow Brigade / Circuitry of the Wolf / Chinaberry Tree / Hawaii / Beach / White Lips Kissed / Tricks of the Trade / Apocalypso / Saviours of Jazz Ballet / Silas the Magic Car / Special / The Zookeeper’s Boy —– Introducing Palace Players / Am I Wry? No / 156
*****
Mew were charging batteries for three days and that resulted in one of the best shows I’ve seen by them, at least what it comes to outdoor gigs. Skive is a small (and slightly scary) town in Jutland, the mainland of Denmark, some five hour drive away from Copenhagen. As the Danish capital city is located on an island, you need to take a ferry at some point. Previously known as Skive Beach Party, Skive Festival is Denmark’s third largest summer festival and it was wonderfully organised. No question about that. The camping area is just a 10-minute walk away from the main stages and Mew played on the second largest one on opening day. I say day, cause they started at 8:15 pm and it was way too early and sunny to even consider the visual backdrops. So, once again, they didn’t use any. Are they deliberately telling us that they don’t need the animations to put on a good show? If so, they sure are right. Even without them, this was a wonderful show. It was all about the performance.
The sound was particularly good for an outdoor event and the band seemed happy and energetic on stage. As the stage was located next to a beach, Bo Madsen made sure that the audience danced to Beach. Nick Watts was constantly getting people excited, he sure can play the keyboard and jump at the same time. Danish people, in general, take a lot of pride for Mew and I don’t blame them. Any country would. The crowd was really into it during the whole 77-minute show that opened with Introducing Palace Players and ended with Comforting Sounds. They probably could have played an even longer set (with Tricks of the Trade maybe?), but they started almost ten minutes late (a rarity in their world) and Green Day was about to get ready on the main stage.
The title should give it away already, but Hawaii works beautifully in sunlight. Not sure about Cartoons and Macramé Wounds, though. That seems to demand a darker atmosphere despite its lyrics. Due to aforementioned track, they were able to extend the show to a reasonable length. Almost eighty minutes with fifteen tracks is quite an achievement when some songs are so short to begin with, and Sometimes Life Isn’t Easy is just played shorter. When Mari Helgerlikova cannot be seen on visuals, they cut the finale of that song.
Skive Festival setlist:
Introducing Palace Players / Snow Brigade / Am I Wry? No / 156 / White Lips Kissed / Hawaii / Beach / Repeaterbeater / Sometimes Life Isn’t Easy / Cartoons and Macramé Wounds / Apocalypso / Saviours of Jazz Ballet —– Special / The Zookeeper’s Boy / Comforting Sounds
NEXT UP: Finland’s Provinssirock (on June 18th). The time slot is set as early as 7:45 pm… so, this would be the first Finnish show without visuals in use since Ruisrock 2003.
Text and photos by Tero Heikkinen
