Home > audiofiles

MGMT takes ‘Hi-Dive’ into success

By Stephanie DeCamp
sdecamp@mscd.edu

Everything appeared to be in chaos Feb. 4 as various members of New York’s Yeasayer and MGMT (formerly known as The Management) wandered the stage at the Hi-Dive, seemingly at the end of the latter’s set, though obviously up to something.

Half-drunk bands and fans were one mass, and as MGMT vocalist/ guitarist Andrew VanWyngarden and soundman Ben Goldwasser rose above the rest to their station of keys and buttons, the familiar strain of “Kids Oracular Spectacular MGMT” rang out to an ecstatic crowd. As the dancing renewed and redoubled, the feeling was tangible: The end of the world may be coming — hell, it may be at our doorstep — but we’re going to dance our way straight to it. Armageddon be damned.

With their debut Oracular Spectacular (Columbia Records) MGMT has concocted a neo-hippie mini-nova whose sounds can be traced back to any given year of the past five decades. Half pop-perfection, half early Pink Floyd-ian space odyssey, MGMT walks a fine line, in both performance and show, between lost head-trip and dancing delight. The album’s high points — all of which dare you to sit still — include album opener “Time to Pretend,” (Flaming Lips, anyone?) and “Electric Feel Oracular Spectacular.” The latter is one of the sexiest groove songs since Sly met the Family Stone.

Yet as colorfully as their many elements came together and spread instantaneous joy throughout out their sold-out audience, one couldn’t help but notice the glazed expression that threatened to take hold on 10- minute experimental jams like “4th Dimensional.”

“Transition Oracular Spectacular MGMT.” (Notice a pattern with the song titles?) Toeing the line, the band nonetheless had a commendable sensitivity to the audience, seeming to pick up on when to pick it up. By the end of the set they were playing Led Zeppelin’s “The Ocean,” the once honest set list becoming a free for all love-in of influence.

Presumably in hopes of calming the audience into submission in order to get them out, the soundman began to play Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You” over the loud speaker. Now in full-swing jam mode, Yeasayer’s lead singer Chris Keating wasn’t going to relent that easy. Without skipping a beat he was singing along with Mazzy, and the band followed suit. This continued through three more songs, with more and more audience participation, until once again the guys decided to dive into classic rock, jamming out to old Lynyrd Skynyrd, among others. With the audience dwindling and the house lights on, one couldn’t help but smile at the tenaciousness of this unbridled joy in performing.

In the end, no matter how you put it, MGMT have it down pat. What the band is able to convey on its new release and live performance — more than anything else — is a sense that youth can last forever, and life is to be enjoyed to its fullest. Even the most hardened scenester that night walked out with a smile on their face, and one couldn’t help but think, “God bless ‘em for it. This is great.”