Photo courtesy of Lexie Alley
Does it smell like a school gymnasium in here/
It’s funny how they’re all the same
So goes the opening of Mitski’s “Two Slow Dancers,” a heartwrenching ballad about nostalgia, young love, and the fleeting nature of time. But while these lyrics always hit me like an emotional sucker punch, it was especially poetic hearing them float through Hollywood High’s cavernous Grand Auditorium — where Mitski performed the LA leg of her Nothing’s About to Happen to Me Tour.
There seems to be an unspoken rule among Mitski lovers that you don’t stand at her shows — an agreement I appreciate as someone who’s only 5’1. Instead, everyone remains peacefully in their seats, as if they were at a symphony or a sermon. This offers some insight as to how fans see the indie singer-songwriter: she’s regarded with a certain reverence, treated as something divine to be witnessed rather than just a spectacle to be recorded on your phone. But make no mistake — although audience members were seated, the auditorium still hummed with the palpable energy of anticipation.
Eventually the house lights dimmed, and Mitski took the stage, where she was instantly met with explosive cheers and applause. She immediately launched into her first song of the evening, “In a Lake” — an Americana-twinged tune that laments the struggles of living in a small town such as everything reminding you of your first romance.
Where you never get away from your first love/
It’s like one brand of soap’s sold in town/
‘Cause anyone you can get close to/
Smells like your first time around
A metaphor about everyone you know smelling like your ex… is there anything more nightmarish?
During the show, Mitski worked her way through all of the hits off her eighth studio album Nothing’s About to Happen to Me. Featuring an eclectic mix of folk elements, hard rock, jazz, and lush orchestral arrangements, the album sonically feels like a continuation of her last work, The Land is Hospitable and So Are We. Two standout performances for me were the bossa nova-inspired “I Will Change For You” and Sylvia Plathian “Dead Woman,” the latter enhanced by a large projection of bobbing ocean waves, simulating the experience of struggling to keep your head above water. And of course, Mitski whipped out several fan-favorites from her discography, such as “Washing Machine Heart” and “I Bet on Losing Dogs” — which elicited the loudest screams of the evening.
As an audience member, something that I appreciate about Mitski — aside from her genius lyricism and heavenly voice (both givens) — is how fully she inhabits her body and embraces physicality. She was effervescent, light on her feet, and made excellent use of the vintage furniture pieces that adorned the stage — toying with a desk lamp, draping herself dramatically across a velvet chaise longue, and the like. She’d even fall to her knees occasionally, overcome by the emotion of whatever she was singing. Displaying equal parts raw talent and charming theatricality, Mitski has proven herself to be not just a powerhouse singer-songwriter, but a born performer through and through.
The unconventionality of holding a concert at a high school was not lost on Mitski — she joked about being triggered the second she stepped onto Hollywood High’s campus, feeling like she had been transported back to her “terrible” teenage years. But whether at a high school auditorium, on an open prairie, or at the bottom of the ocean, I know one thing for certain: I’d watch Mitski anywhere.
Listen to Mitski’s latest album here:
