Author: Richie DeMaria
When it comes to Mew, nothing is done on a small scale. Nearly everything about the Danish prog-rockers borders on excess: from their sweeping, power-chord driven songs, to their dazzling light show, to singer Jonas Bjerre’s astronomically high vocals, all is awash in unabashed grandiosity.
Lucky us. Fans of the self-described “world’s only indie stadium band” were treated to an epic show Saturday night at the packed Henry Fonda Theater, their third southland appearance in the last year.
Opening with “Circuitry of the Wolf/Chinaberry Tree” from last year’s And The Glasshanded Kites, the band played a set comprised mostly of songs from 2003’s Frengers and the aforementioned Kites. They were backed by a display of surreal, occasionally creepy visuals, including walking trees and shrieking, black-eyed dolls.
Highlights included “The Zookeeper’s Boy” and the energetic “Shespider,” which worked up the crowd into a foot-stomping, fist-pumping frenzy. But Mew saved the best for last. Their final song, the wonderfully bloated “Comforting Sounds,” was as good of a closer as one could ask for, a giant crescendo stretched out to its ear-splitting limits. It was a fitting end to the show, one where the band proved that, sometimes, bigger can be better.
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