Just as there aren't a lot of singers who merit equal comparisons to David Byrne, Tori Amos, St. Vincent and Bette Midler onstage, there aren't many concerts at the Surly Brewery where demand for ice cream and sodas is on par with beer.
What a weird but wonderful start Mitski was for the summer concert season at Surly Brewery Festival Field on Thursday night.
The Japan-born, New York-based electro-pop/drama-rock star packed the ever-makeshift music venue next to the Minneapolis beer hall. All 6,000 tickets sold out despite what seemed like an odd fit: an all-ages concert by the hitmaker of "Washing Machine Heart" at the brewery behind Darkness and Furious.
The youthfulness of the crowd — it was apparent just how flat Surly's "field" really is seeing a couple thousand tweens standing on their tippy-toes — made Thursday's performance even more charming than Mitski's prior stop in town at the Palace Theatre in March (an 18-plus show).
Sure, some of the visual vibrancy and the musical punch were lost outdoors compared with the Palace gig. Tame Impala found out at Surly in 2019 that wowee-zowee light shows don't have much effect at outdoor Minnesota concerts until well after 9 p.m. in summer.
However, Mitski proved to be a bright enough presence throughout her 90-minute set to keep much of the crowd mesmerized.
Forget "moves like Jagger." This frontwoman moves like a cross between a ballerina, a karate black belt and a mime, while also bringing in the rhythmically paired nervous energy of the aforementioned Byrne and the playful grandiosity of Midler.
Starting with the urgent opener "Love Me More," the 31-year-old singer (full name: Mitski Miyawaki) offered never-ending hand gestures and body twists that always felt in line with the music and never seemed forced. Sometimes the audience cheered loudly enough for her maneuvers that you'd think she had just invented Michael Jackson's moonwalk.