Mitski Miyawaki, known simply as Mitski, performed her indie rock album Be the Cowboy, in addition to other songs, at The Sylvee Wednesday.
The concert started with her fast-paced songs that are more closely related to rock music, but Mitski brought out her guitar and played with softer vocals and a slower beat toward the end of the concert.
Mitski based her album on her apathy while on the road as she tried to keep up with her business. In an interview with Uproxx, Mitski said the album allowed her to regain and find herself.
“I had been on the road for a long time, which is so isolating, and had to run my own business at the same time,” Mitski said. “A lot of this record was me not having any feelings, being completely spent but then trying to rally myself and wake up and get back to Mitski.”
The cool-colored lights highlighted Mitski as the main presence on the stage. She performed with a table and chair that acted as a prop for her to engage with.
Mitski moved across the stage at times while singing, engaging with the audience as she belted her music. But for the most part, Mitski’s movements were crisp, clean and dramatic. They were pretty simple for a soloist, but Mitski used her movements to aid the powerful persona that she gave off during the concert.
When she played “I Don’t Smoke,” Mitski acted out punching herself in her stomach, and then dramatically circling her hand. She repeated these movements during the chorus, as she did with other songs, but with movements that were specific to that song.
If she wasn’t moving her hands, Mitski was moving her legs or using the table as a prop. During a couple of points in the concert, Mitski opened her legs on the table with her back laying against it, all the while maintaining beautiful vocals.
Overall, her singing was high-pitched. Her voice was soft, but her lyrics were powerful, which was dramatized by her repetitive and fast-paced gestures.
At times, however, Mitski grew out of her mostly-contained movements and let out a heap of energy by flipping her hair and running across the stage.
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Shortly after, she even started swinging the microphone around, which rallied the audience. Mitski started jumping ecstatically on stage, too, as if to crush away her past apathy.
The crowd sang along to a lot of her songs, and those on the second floor of The Sylvee primarily stood during the concert, swaying along to the beat like everyone else.
Mitski did settle down after the majority of the concert, much to the audience’s dismay, who called for her to bring back her table and chair after she dragged them off stage. Mistki didn’t listen though and instead brought out her guitar. Her music lessened in its energy but was no less engaging.
She played songs like “A Burning Hill” and “Two Slow Dancers” with her guitar. Before she headed off stage to end her concert, Mitski thanked the audience for coming.
“Thank you for feeling all the feelings,” Mitski said. “Thank you for connecting.”
