Miike Snow at First Avenue, 10/16/2012

Photo By Anna Gulbrandsen

Miike Snow
With Niki and the Dove
First Avenue, Minneapolis
Tuesday, October 16, 2012

If you are going to attend a Miike Snow concert, it is best to bring a pair of sunglasses. Perhaps that is why lead singer Andrew Wyatt had a pair on the entire evening, to block out the amazing, but amazingly bright, light show. Or perhaps just to look cool, which he needed no help doing.

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Slideshow: Miike Snow at First Avenue, 10/16/12
Five felicitous spring songs

Approaching the stage with hoodies and gold masks, the members of Miike Snow brought along a fourth, and an occasional fifth member to create their huge dance-driven tracks. The band opened with the dreamlike "Enter the Jokers Lair," a piece full of bright synths, brought to life by blinking orange lights from the huge center piece that contained their instruments, which looked like the console of a spaceship. The majority of the audience knew the songs merely by the opening notes, and cheered when they recognized hits like "Cult Logic" and chanting "Miike Snow" for "Bavarian #1 (Say You Will)."

If sunglasses are the first thing to bring to a Miike Snow show, then dancing shoes are the second most important thing to bring. Wyatt informed the entranced crowd, "We're gonna fucking dance now. Minneapolis, do you want to get down?" leading into "Pretender," a track off the latest album. It seems like every song is epic, most especially displayed on the seven minute love song "Silvia" that built up to a brilliant crescendo. Getting a crowd of Minnesotans to dance may be a difficult thing, unless you're Miike Snow and can mimic an '80s dance club -- and even had Andrew Wyatt channeling Prince in a falsetto -- with the driving "Black and Blue," during which an audience member in the front row was spotted holding a cross, as if using it to ward off evil.

Photos By Anna Gulbrandsen

Although his performance didn't show it, Wyatt shared that he was sick and starting to lose his voice, returning for an encore with the low-key "Sans Soleil," and ending with an extended dynamic version of "Animal." Inasmuch that the band writes songs that are considered dance music, the pieces often mirror a hearbeat or even the pace of the soul, shaking everything in your body down to your bones.

Critic's bias: I did not know one Miike Snow song coming into this show, but was eager to see, and be impressed by, a band that could write a hit like "Toxic" for Britney Spears.

The crowd: It could have easily been a night sponsored by Urban Outfitters.

Overheard in the crowd: In reference to the opener, "There was no dove, but Niki was alright."

Setlist

Enter the Jokers Lair
The Wave
Cult Logic
Bavarian #1 (Say You Will)
Burial
Pretender
Silvia
God Help This Divorce
Black & Blue
Paddling Out
Black Tin Box
Devil's Work

Encore
Sans Soleil
Animal

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