Mitski at Elsewhere
photo by Em Grey

Mitski brought her new choreographed live show to Elsewhere with Sidney Gish (pics, videos)

Mitski released her excellent fifth album Be the Cowboy on Friday via Dead Oceans, and she celebrated it with a hometown release show at Brooklyn’s Elsewhere Hall the next night (8/18). As Mitski said she would, she hired a bassist so she could just sing in concert, and she worked with Monica from performance art collective FlucT to put together a more ambitious, more choreographed live show. The result was a completely different experience than any other Mitski show we’ve ever seen. She did pick up a guitar for her final two songs, “My Body is Made of Crushed Little Stars” and “A Burning Hill,” but mostly she spent the show dancing, jumping, and veering much closer to “performance art” than she ever has before.

She played a good mix of her new album, her 2014 breakthrough Bury Me At Makeout Creek, and her last album, 2016’s Puberty 2, plus she broke out “Goodbye, My Danish Sweetheart” from her early album Retired from Sad, New Career in Business during the encore. The SUNY Purchase grad also commented on stage about seeing a lot of college friends’ faces in the crowd.

Rising Boston indie rocker Sidney Gish opened the show. Pictures are in the gallery above, and some videos of Mitski’s new and improved live show are below.

Mitski’s tour brings her back to Brooklyn for shows at Brooklyn Steel on 11/30 & 12/1 with Downtown Boys and SASAMI. Night 1 is still on sale but night 2 is sold out.

photos by Em Grey