Line-up

Headliner
MGMT Last time in SF Bay Area: 7 years ago

Venue

Public Works

161 Erie St., 94103, San Francisco, CA, US

publicsf.com/

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Additional details

Tour name: MGMT DJ Set

MGMT DJ Set

Concert in your area for Indie & Alt, Rock, and Electronic.

Find out more about Rock and Electronic.

MGMT biography

Formed in 2004, MGMT are a psychedelic rock group from Connecticut, US, formed around the core duo of Benjamin Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden. Their first release was the 2005 E.P “Climbing to New Lows” and they’ve released three studio albums since then.

Anyone who remembers the summer of 2008 will have their memories colonized by this band whether they realize it or not. The first MGMT album, “Oracular Spectacular” and especially the two smash hit singles “Kids” and “Time to Pretend” seemed to be the background radiation of everyone’s life and it made an absolutely dismal washout of a season feel like San Francisco in 1967 everywhere you went, even when it was bucketing down relentlessly, which it often did.

That’s just the effect that this band has even to this day, and that stems from the bands attitude as much as it does the music, hitching a stringent adherence to not giving a damn about what anyone else thinks to gorgeously catchy melodies and floaty psychedelia.

I’m not kidding about the not giving a damn part, the band were never about getting famous. What bunch of fame hungry chancers would do as Goldwasser and VanWyngarden did and perform their first gigs dressed as snowmen playing 45 minute versions of the theme from Ghostbusters?

Those shows were played explicitly to annoy their fellow students at the Wesleyan University in Connecticut where they formed, however after Goldwasser and VanWyngarden realized that they had legitimate musical chemistry they developed their brand of psychedelic pop and signed to Columbia Records in 2006. Since their debut the band have shied away from releasing the radio friendly singles that made their name and have released two albums of uncompromising, yet dizzyingly good psychedelic rock as a result and they’re only getting better from here on out.

Live reviews

PSA ANNOUNCEMENT: Their later cds, Congratulations and MGMT, are growers! Listen to them multiple times, in tracklist order, through headphones, in the dark! You won't regret it!

MGMT live is... for lack of better, more descriptive words... chill. The music is still spacey, avant-garde, and deliciously faux-retro. Just don't expect crazy stage shenanigans or wacky stage banter anymore (ok, it does get a bit weird sometimes).

Instead, keep an ear out for when they extend and embellished your favorite tracks. Pure audiogasm. My favorite bits are always when the music takes over, and James starts in on the glorious shredding. Ben, holed up in his electronic fortress, will always add this sort of cosmic texture to performances. All this will be topped off by Andrew distinctive singing. (I like to say he has a buttered baby bunny voice. No, I have no idea what the hell that really means either :) )

If you ever decide to see these guys, keep a couple of things in mind. 1) Kids and Time to Pretend sightings are incredibly rare these days. They have too much offer now! 2) Of Moons, Birds & Monsters and The Handshake live often evolve into this gorgeous rock-outs that make me wish it were on the cd. 3) Ladies, Andrew's gotten really good at not making eye contact. Time for us to give up :( 4) Best seats in the house? In front of James for showmanship, in front of Ben for techies.

If you're fortunate enough, the guys come out later to say hi to fans. They're all sweet as pie (except Matt, he's more like a rhubarb crumble, ha), I highly recommend it!! Hang out by any side door of the venue for a couple of hours.

Gooo. Go to see them. It won't be a "psychedelic rave" like people came to expect after so long. It'll be so much better.

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