Mitski is well aware that her fan base skews quite young, to the point where many of the listeners who had tickets to see her show at Stanford University’s Frost Amphitheater might’ve have needed rides from their parents in order to get to the venue.
So, the 33-year-old indie-rock/art-pop singer-songwriter decided that she should let these parents know, right up front, what was in store for them — and their children — during Wednesday night’s concert.
“There will be some PG-13 content in the lyrics,” Mitski confessed from the stage. “And I will say the F-word. You can’t stop me. So, just be prepared, parents.
“I warned you.”
Yet, Mitski — who also performed Monday and Tuesday at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley — made it sound far more menacing than needed. Sure, there was a little bit of colorful language. Mainly, however, it was just a great opportunity for these young fans — including a sizable swatch of what appeared to be high-school-age kids — to take in another intellectually stimulated and artistically ambitious performance from this rising star.
Following an opening set from Wyatt Flores, Mitski took the stage just after 8 p.m. and immediately turned to “Lauren Hell” territory to conjure up a countrified “Everyone,” which sounded like something Tammy Wynette might have cooked up in the ’70s. It was the first of three tracks that 2022 album, which was her sixth studio platter overall and her first to chart in the Billboard top 10.
She continued on through 23 more selections — which ranged in feel from Tori Amos-style confessional singer-songwriter material and Yoko Ono-worthy avant-garde pop to jaunty country-rock and mainstream pop — over the course of a set that ran right around 90 minutes.
Backed by a versatile seven-piece band, which flanked the star on both sides as she performed solo on a circular platform that stood maybe two feet off the regular stage, Mitski touched upon five of her seven studio albums. The lion’s share went to last year’s “The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We,” which contributed nine tracks to the setlist.
Mitski possesses a powerful voice and crafts songs that deeply resonate with her listeners, something that was made abundantly clear as you watched the way the fans at Frost sat with their eyes transfixed to the stage as they mouthed along to the lyrics.
She’s also an extremely fascinating entertainer in the live arena, coming across more like an avant-garde performance artist than a pop act. Her movements are works of art, as she dances in curiously choreographed fashions; crawls along on all fours (in canine fashion, with some panting thrown in, during “I Bet on Losing Dogs”); balances on one foot atop a simple chair; and favors exaggerated and repetitive arm gestures in ways that are reminiscent of her pal David Byrne (who worked with Mitski and Ryan Lott on the Oscar-nominated song “This Is a Life” from 2022’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once”).
And she’s not just concerned with her own art, but also the quality of the media being produced by her fans.
“You know what would be sexy?” she said to her picture-taking public. “If you would turn off your flash? You know why? You won’t get good pictures.”
She also has a wicked sense of humor, which she illustrated when she singled out a person in the crowd who was toking up in the crowd and then played a game that could be described as “let’s make the person smoking weed super paranoid.”
“It’s so obvious that you are so high,” she said to the unnamed person, as part of a questionable intro to the fan favorite “I Don’t Smoke.” “You are embarrassing yourself. You are too high.”
Picking on the high fan, crawling around on the stage floor like a canine, drawing comparisons to David Byrne, all while drawing from a songbook that includes an Academy Award nomination and ever-escalating amounts of acclaim — yeah — Mitski is a different kind of artist, for sure.
But she’s one that has certainly connected with fans — especially young fans. She warned parents at the start of the concert what to expect. Yet, we’re guessing that a lot of those parents might have turned out to be fans themselves by the time the show came to a close with a superb encore of “Nobody” and “Washing Machine Heart.”
Mitski setlist:
1. “Everyone”
2. “Buffalo Replaced”
3. “Working for the Knife”
4. “The Frost”
5. “The Deal”
6. “Valentine, Texas”
7. “I Bet on Losing Dogs”
8. “Thursday Girl”
9. “First Love/Late Spring”
10. “Star”
11. “Heaven”
12. “I Don’t Like My Mind”
13. “Old Friend”
14. “I Love Me After You”
15. “Happy”
16. “My Love Mine All Mine”
17. “Last Words of a Shooting Star”
18. “Pink in the Night”
19. “I Don’t Smoke”
20. “Lonesome Love”
21. “I’m Your Man”
22. “Fireworks”
Encore:
23. “Nobody”
24. “Washing Machine Heart”
