encore:

thanks to michael kaczmer.

support from boas and lights out asia.

links

popmatters.com review

erasing clouds review

reviews/comments

from matthew hannigan:

the show was incredible, and at points, almost deafening! mogwai definitely had the dynamics working well. during "ex cowboy", when they made the huge jump from near silence to deafening roar, it was so startling that a few people around me literally screamed in fright, which was excellent. during many of the songs, they built a wall of sound and just when i didn't think they could build any higher, they would punch it in with an extra layer of distortion or fuzz and pick up the volume a little. during "ratts of the capital" when the second bass guitar was brought it, it was great. it added such meat to it.

the dicks that were yelling and screaming and whatnot during the quiet songs were quite annoying and as stuart said, "there are a lot of weird people here tonight!".

lights out asia and boas opened. i regrettably missed all of lights out asia, but i caught one song by boas. they were cool. altogether, excellent show. the new material is great live. i can't wait until the next tour. cheers!

from michael kaczmer:

mogwai was amazing as usual at the metro thursday night. during soundcheck, it was obvious that from just the few chords they used to check the guitars with, that they were going to kick things off with "ithica", which i thought was a nice way to kick things off with a bang. and did they ever.

all the 'loud' bits were wonderfully deafening, especially during "ex-cowboy" and "ratts". the highlight of the night (for me anyway) was the beautful transition from "kids will be skeletons" to "fear satan". they held the last note in "skeletons" for a while, slowing building into "satan".

i have to admit that i was kind of disappointed to not hear them do "2 rights make 1 wrong", as it's one of my top 3 mogwai songs of all time, but still, the show was amazing. definitely one of the best i've seen 'em play. then again, mogwai seldom plays awful whenever i've seen 'em, so i guess them having a good show is just par for the course. the only minor bad part had to do with the audience. during "helicon 1", some morons saw fit to shout out for "xmas steps". as my friend said to me, it's really intelligent to shout another completely different song title at the beginning of an eight minute song. i guess some people just need to be the center of (unwarranted) attention. but i digress...

"ratts" was a perfect way to end the first set. when they left after it, i was wondering what they would come back with for the encore. i'm so used to either "like herod" or "my father my king" that it was a nice change of pace for them to play something different. the laid back qualities of "happiness" really cleared the boards for the all-out assault of "xmas steps", which (as always) did not fail to kick major ass.

so, mogwai did it again in chicago. they came and belted out another stellar performance. the new songs sound great live, and the older songs still never fail to amaze me. now the wait begins for the next time they come through town...