Last time I saw Miike Snow was at Wrongbar. Hands down one of the sweatiest dance parties I have ever attended, as Miike Snow churned out the dance music that made our bodies unable to stop moving. Tuesday night at Sound Academy, with a much, much larger crowd they managed to pull it off again. The ability to turn the entire crowd at Sound Academy into a collective sweaty dance party is no easy feat. I was a little worried going into the show, as reviewing a show at Sound Academy can be a pretty daunting task. Whether or not the band plays perfectly, the sound is usually off and the venue set up makes it difficult for concert goers to truly experience the music from more than 30 feet away from the stage. Thankfully, Miike Snow managed to make me forget that this was the venue that had previously ruined a slew of concerts for me.
Penguin Prison, the touring opening act, from New York, also label mates with Miike Snow, warmed up the crowd with their electro-pop hits, especially winning favor with their cover of Lana Del Ray’s ‘Blue Jeans’, and their closing song ‘Don’t Fuck With My Money’ off their self-titled album.
The wait for Miike Snow was close to putting the crowd to sleep. Waiting to soothing ambient music, I was almost wishing for bed. As the lights dimmed, as ominous looking Miike Snow emerged. Donning hoods and gold masks, they knocked us over with ‘Enter the Joker’s Lair’ off of their sophomore album Happy to You, followed right by ‘The Wave’. The stage set up was futuristic and impressive, the space station-esque centerpiece, with their trademarked jackalope lighting up in sync with the music, took the crown as visual highlight. Instruments were literally scattered across the stage, with the band jumping from instrument to instrument, almost like a musical relay race. The hits of the night that really got the crowd going (and one guy throwing napkins as if they were confetti) were ‘Sylvia’, ‘Burial’, ‘Bavarian #1 (Say You Will)’, ‘Devil’s Work’ and ‘Paddling Out’. For the encore, they performed the slower jam ‘Sans Soleil’ off of their acclaimed self-titled debut, and then brought the house down, leaving us wanting more with crowd favorite and single ‘Animal’.
The formation of Miike Snow is like that science experiment gone right. With the combination of Andrew Wyatt’s pitch perfect far-ranging vocals and addicting, infectious song-writing by revered producers Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg, the chemistry just works.