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This past weekend I was informed by a friend of mine that MGMT would be playing a Free! show on Sunday. I got quite excited about the prospects of finally seeing this band live after they entered my life in the Spring of ’08 in the Barcelonan nightclub, Razzmatazz. I instantly fell in love, and Oracular Spectacular proceeded to become my summer anthem.  However, once I found out that this Free! show came with a slight catch (one had to wait in line for hours to test drive some car in order to get tickets…boring), my prospects seemed quite bleak. This was until my friend informed that she had an extra ticket and I would be her plus one. Lucky me. 

We got to the venue at 5:30 thinking it started at 6:00 (I know what show starts at 6:00? It was free. Who knows?), but it actually didn’t start until 8:00. For the next two and half hours I had plenty of time to scoop out the crowd. I found it quite interesting that there were so many youngins present, especially considering the fact that you had to be 18 to test drive. Once the doors opened, my friend and I marched right up front and center  and took our spot between a group of high schoolers and a douche-looking guy who wore his orange wafers throughout the entire show. The high schoolers were quite entertaining. They were covered in glitter and dressed up as Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden as the appeared on their album cover. 

Once MGMT took the stage the crowd went wild. I expected Ben and Andrew to be dressed eccentrically and to be quite the little performers. However, they appeared donning plaid button ups, skinny jeans, and shy personalities.  The show was okay. I expected more eccentricities and energy. Not until ‘Kids’ did they seem like they were truly into it. Maybe they just need more time to grow into their stage personalities. 

The highlight of the show occurred towards the end when Mr. Orange-Wafers asked the girl next to him to have intimate relations after the show. The conversation went some like this: 

Orange-Wafers: We should totally have sex after this.

 Dumb Girl: Okay. 

Orange-Wafers: I mean, I don’t want to pressure you or anything. 

Dumb Girl: It’s cool. I feel like it fits in with the whole concert experience. 

That was enough to make the whole experience worthwhile. Overall, I had a great time. Just keep in mind not to have too high expectations, even if an artist is dressed in feathers, face paint, and neon shorts on his album cover.