Mitski at First Avenue, Minneapolis (26 Oct 2018)

Japanese-American singer/songwriter Mitski (Mitski Miyawaki) sold out her show at First Avenue’s mainroom on Friday, October 27th. This marked Mitski’s biggest stage to date.



Opening the show was New York duo Overcoats (Hana Elion and JJ Mitchell), touring in support of their debut album Young. This is the third time we’ve seen Overcoats, and it’s our favorite so far. In their first show with Matt Corby in May 2016 they were standard singer/songwriter folk singers. We saw them again with Tennis in Mar 2017 and they had transformed their show to a weird karaoke/art performance. With this current 2018 tour, the duo added a drummer called Sara G (?) to their live show.



As usual, Overcoats won over the audience with their sweet harmonies and dancing in unison. The crowd absolutely loved them, and Hana Elion had to mention several times that “Minneapolis is the literally best!”



Since their debut Young came out in 2017, it’s no secret that the group was working on their sophomore album. They decided to play two of those upcoming songs near the end of their set. Since the album is still pending, the song titles (just sample lyrics) are not obviously correct.



Mitski didn’t know how many times she’s played the Twin Cities, but she remembered playing the 7th Street Entry (next door) a few times (we saw her in Nov 2015, July 2016, and mentioned Triple Rock in July 2017), and had always wondered what it was like to be in the “big room” at First Avenue.



She really loved the historic First Avenue, again thanking the venue and staff for working so well with her band, “Some of the employees have worked here for 30 years…” which is older than her (she’s 28).



Mitski has always had a theatric side to her, but for this show, it’s all well-choreographed and served more like an art performance with music, rather than a standard pop/rock show. Each song had a custom video, with a particular dance movement. Her band is often in the background, sometime not even facing the crowd, but that’s exactly how they’re used for this tour. The spotlight is on Mitski at all times and she should be the center of focus.



Thanks to Mitski’s most raved album of 2018, Be The Cowboy (landing at #52 in the Billboard Top 200, #10 in Top Current Albums, #11 in Billboard Top Albums, #2 in Vinyl Albums), the current tour has sold out all across the country. That’s right, every show on this tour is sold out.



It wasn’t just watching Mitski that was fun, but part of the show is also just hearing and seeing her fans sing back to every song! You have to love the fact that Mitski started at the tiny 250-capacity show at the 7th Street to a 1,500+ capacity show at First Avenue, in such a short time.

Mitski’s Be The Cowboy is out now.

Tour dates:

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