Typically, Mitski is enjoyed in isolation. Her sprawling indie sonics and gut-wrenching confessionals have received global acclaim, but there’s still something so personal, so intimate, captured on a Mitski track. And that’s why, as you wade through the bustling crowd in Manchester’s O2 Apollo, something feels off.
Rather than a hushed 3am sing-along, thousands of voices are chattering around you. On-stage, luxurious red drapes hang down from the ceiling. Band members are gearing up, preparing to blast Mitski’s heartbreak out over the speakers. It’s as if your most tender secrets are about to be ripped out of the shadows and thrust into the limelight.
As Mitski finally emerges, however, something shifts. The gentle instrumentals of ‘Everyone’ unravel gently, Mitski’s vocals as good as they sound on record – but there’s also a welcoming wave of fans crooning in response. It’s an immediate reminder that everyone in the room has consumed Mitski under the same circumstances as you. Mitski is everyone’s 3am secret; everyone has ached over her pained vocal quirks, those lyrics that hit just a bit too close to home. With that knowledge comfortably attained, you settle in for an evening of gorgeous orchestral melancholia.
While Mitski’s sonic world is soft and introverted, her persona on-stage is anything but; Mitski glimmers under the glow of the spotlight. From euphoric, erratic flourishing during ‘Geyser’, to ‘Heaven’s gracefully intimate waltzing, the singer performs with a flare of showmanship. Every track is elevated through the use of her body – even if that means crawling around on her hands and knees and panting desperately during ‘I Bet On Losing Dogs’.
Mitski’s bold physicality only emphasises her juxtaposing personalities. While her words can float with grace and poise, there’s always something deeply self-deprecating lurking around the corner. When the singer takes a second to address the crowd, her pessimistic thoughts manage to sum her character up best; “tonight has been so, so great… I’m just waiting for the inevitable bad thing to happen,” her soft voice muses bleakly.
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Luckily for Mitski, the scales of fate are tipped in her favour. Tracks like ‘First Love/Late Spring’ and her 2023 breakthrough ‘My Love Mine All Mine’ have the crowd enraptured, the room filling with thousands of eager voices singing along.
Visually, Mitski also stuns during tracks like ‘Last Words of a Shooting Star’, dazzling fragments of mirror extending down from the ceiling and glistening light around the room like a disco ball. ‘Bug Like An Angel’ is particularly poignant, Mitski standing in a blue haze of fog as the live drums hammers down impossibly hard, ethereal choir vocals contrasting with rumbling, unnerving percussion.
As ‘Washing Machine Heart’ marks the end of the set, you take a moment to bask in the magic of the evening. While a packed-out crowd sharply contrasts a solo bedroom listening session, Mitski somehow manages to capture that same intimacy and amplify it into something far more personal. It’s an experience that leaves you with goosebumps, and an even deeper understanding of why Mitski has become the world’s Indie Darling.
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