Review by Aisling O’Brien
Photos by Kieran Frost
MGMT at The Olympia Theatre on September 18th 2010
MGMT arrived on the Olympia stage a little after nine on Saturday night to cheers from the merry audience. Andrew who was sporting a rather fetching polka dot blouse, asked “Are you having fun? Well get ready to have some more.” They then launched in to Flash Delirium, off their newest album Congratulations. Following this with an older song Destrokk. Andrew announced to the crowd that they were glad to be back for a third night but sad to leave Dublin; and just in case the crowd had any doubt that the band knew where they were, a Google map appeared on the screen in the background zooming in and out of Dublin, Ireland, this got a very warm reaction from the crowd. This portion of visuals was accompanied by a trippy guitar solo.
To be honest where I had situated myself, halfway between the sound engineer and the second pit barrier, it was difficult to devote full attention to everything happening onstage, with the majority of those surrounding me having full-blown conversations. Andrew, and the rest of the band, who I hope were oblivious to the blatant lack of respect, did their best to create a rapport with the audience stating what a beautiful audience they had and asking were they ok. Going back to Oracular Spectacular, Weekend Wars got the crowd moving to the music, who I thought were quite sombre of a Saturday evening, followed by The Youth with a visual of a house on fire and pink spotlights on the band.
As the opening chords of Time to Pretend blasted around the Olympia, the crowd finally erupted in what was definitely the biggest cheer of the night so far. Playing songs from the new record, it was clear that a lot of the crowd around me were there for the hits. So by the time they played Electric Feel a few songs later, with the crowd going wild again, the lads seemed to be a bit irked by the fair-weather crowd, but I suppose it’s a small price to pay for the success the indie anthems brought them. They got in to the swing of things again, with Andrew banging on the drums. Kids saw the first interaction between the band themselves and saw them moving around the stage. An Irish flag was thrown on stage, and as if to show some appreciation to the crowd, Andrew necked a bottle of beer.Just as they were really getting in to it, Andrew and Ben said their thank yous and left the stage. The crowd, who since I had ventured in to the pit had gotten a lot livelier, were chanting, the ‘dodododo’ of Kids.
Andrew appeared on stage slightly more casual in a white t-shirt, whilst Ben arrived in the same psychedelic t-shirt he had left in.
Rocking out with an absolute jam session with Of Birds, Moons and Monsters. They finished up with Congratulations, and left the crowd wanting more. To be honest I wasn’t totally convinced with MGMT’s latest offering but with hearing it live, I think I’ll give it another chance. It may not have had the anthemesque tunes but I think some of us may have been to hasty with our judgements.
