By Jenna Rittman
Correspondent
Around a month after Mitski released her recent album, “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We,” she announced that she was going on tour in the United States and Europe. She made two stops to The Met in Philadelphia for her tour. My friend and I were lucky enough to score tickets for the first night on Feb. 6.
The concert opened up with a performance by the indie rock artist Tamino. He had an angelic, yet powerful voice that went well with his guitar playing. He performed songs such as “The Longing,” “Indigo Night” and “Habibi.”
After a promising opener, Mitski and her band made their way onto the stage. She started the concert off with the song “Everybody” from her 2022 “Laurel Hell” album. This is a simple song with just Mitski’s vocals, a synthesizer and beat in the background. In this song, Mitski speaks about her music career and her rise to fame. The lyrics “Everyone, all of them / Everyone said, “Don’t go that way,” refer to how she wasn’t supported in her decision to become a singer, but she didn’t let that deter her from chasing her dreams.
Mitski expressed how happy she was to be in Philadelphia again after playing a few more songs. She mentioned that the first time she thought to herself that she loves Philadelphia was when the Eagles won against the Patriots in the 2018 Super Bowl.
“Just like people were climbing down telephone poles,” she said. “It was a beautiful night. It really was, and something within me was like, ‘let it burn!’”
Alongside playing her songs, she also played folk versions of some of her songs, such as “Pink in the Night” and “I Don’t Smoke.” The audience seemed to greatly enjoy the folk version of these songs. I appreciate how she experiments with different genres in her music, as it gives her listeners something fresh to listen to.
At some points in the concert, some people started shouting things at Mitski while she was performing. One person in the crowd yelled “Yas queen! Mother is mothering!” and multiple people in the audience groaned in unison and yelled “Shut the f— up!”
Later on in the concert, Mitski addressed the people shouting things from the crowd by saying, “I have an in ear in both my ears, so I can’t even hear you. You’re only really screaming to the people next to you.”
Shortly after, she brought up people using flash on their cameras while recording.
“Pro tip, having flash on on your phones does nothing for your pictures and videos,” she said.
One act of hers that stuck out to me is when she performed “Heaven” from her latest album. In the final post-chorus of this song, she slow danced with a spotlight shining on the stage. I found that moment to be beautiful, especially regarding how romantic the nature of the song is. Seeing her slow dancing with a spotlight made me emotional, and I was fighting back happy tears while watching her.
She ended the concert off with two of her most well known songs, “Nobody” and “Washing Machine Heart.” As the concert was ending, I realized how flawlessly crafted all of her performances were.
Overall, I really enjoyed the concert. I thought the crowd was mostly respectful of her, besides some people yelling at her and having phone flashes on. I hope the rest of her tour goes well and I truly look forward to what she has planned in the future.
