Review: Mitski kicks off Surly Brewing concert series in bright fashion

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.

Mitski's music certainly proved dexterous, too. Blending elements of neoclassical, synth-pop, disco, piano ballads and '90s alt-rock — often several of those in the same song — she and her versatile band picked evenly between her 2018 cult-hit of an album "Be the Cowboy" and this year's mainstream-sneaking "Laurel Hell."

Highlights from the newer record came earlier in the show, including the fiery and new-wavy "The Only Heartbreaker" (co-authored by ex-Minneapolitan Dan Wilson of Semisonic) and the elegantly manic "Waiting for the Knife."

"I always thought the choice was mine / And I was right, but I just chose wrong," she sang in the latter tune, one of many rife with themes of self-doubt but bold, provocative wordplay.

As she wildly crisscrossed the stage in the older bruiser "Townie" — it's a wonder her softly monotone but soothing voice never wavered from exhaustion — Mitski darkly intoned, "I want a love that falls as fast as a body from the balcony / And I want a kiss like my heart is hitting the ground."

As for the night's bigger, poppier hits, "Washing Machine Heart" and "Nobody" were both subtly reworked on the rhythmic end to sound more idiosyncratic and even a bit ironic.

Speaking of surprises, Mitski said near the start of her set, "I did not expect this many people to be here, I have to be honest." Promoter First Avenue and Surly's team also seemed to be caught a bit off guard by the sell-out crowd, resulting in complaints over long lines for food, artist merch and post-show traffic. Not beer, though.