no encore. show lasted nearly two hours.

support from fuck buttons

terminal 5

reviews/comments

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2008/09/mogwai_played_t.html

http://www.lostatsea.net/feature.phtml?fid=166315004448d4c29013056

http://www.last.fm/user/pecusita/journal/:

they opened with closer track off their upcoming the hawk is howling album, the precipice. there was a beautiful set-up, all the guitarist were up front and there was an individual purple light illuminating each of them from the back. i'm sure it looked rather cool from a distance as you would only be seeing their contours. i really enjoyed such details throughout the night, as i have not been to such a dedicated venue before. and most of the night, the lights seemed to be in unison with the music.

up next was friend of the night. yay! i must say i had gotten slightly obsessed with that song for the last couple of days. such a beautiful track. the moment was somehow broken by a girl that was passive aggressively punching her boyfriend, until she started swinging around and almost punching other people! the spectacle took up about half song, luckily he took her away after a polite "get the fuck out!" request from a nearby, almost-punched, attendee.

after the waters had settled, i had time to peacefully get lost in the beauty of the track. then a half surprise: summer! seriously, i was not expecting to hear that song. just the day before i was reading an article/interview in the skinny where they dissed young team, again, and singled out that track as "shite". i guess the feeling is not reciprocated throughout the band(?) i'm happy they played it, that track has a sort of sentimental value for me, seeing that it was my first mogwai song!

all through the night, they mixed these "old school" tracks with new songs and it flowed quite nicely, shaping it all up as a strong set-list, that anyone could have expected coming from such fine artistry. all the new songs sounded really nice, especially my two favorites: scotland's shame and i love you, i'm gonna blow up your school.

another track that i was anxiously awaiting to witness, but they had not been playing very often in this tour, surfaced: mogwai fear satan! $@#%! again, sentimental value here. this was the first song that made me go: "holy cannoli, these guys are amazing!". it was everything i though it'd be: the definition of epic... even without the flute, hehe. after the slow (minus flute) bridge, expected loudness ensued. i was left half-deaf and half-blind. lights exploded and flashes started attacking me bilaterally, first one eye then the other, made me think of with portfolio!

other fine moments were cody and the awesomeness of hunted by a freak! 2 rights make 1 wrong has always struck me as the one of the most sweetest melodies they've recorded, and it proved me right in a live setting.

either way, i thought the crowd was great. the only mass whispering moment came about mid-way though thank you space expert, that it's always bothersome. they regained control with helicon pt. 1, then followed with like herod, as soon as the first note struck a woman standing near by said "shit, i'm gonna be deaf tomorrow". and even though you know that is coming, they build up to it amazingly. there's this tension growing inside of you, until it freaking blows the socks off your shoes! i gotta admit, it made me jumped a little and sent my heart racing x300. when they are building up to the next outburst i said to myself: i'm not gonna be swept away this time... failed! it was even more earth shattering the second time around!

as they were fading into white noise and reverb, a thought came to my head: wouldn't it be amazing if they played batcat now and gave us a mortal kombat finish it moment? well, i'm a psychic, cause they went right into it with no transition. and that's exactly how it felt!

that left the crowd in an uproar, they walked off stage but people kept cheering and applauding. soon shouts of "we want more!" erupted. stage crew came on stage and i saw one of the guys pick up a guitar and lay it down once again. maybe it could happen, i saw in a review of their austin show that they played we are no here as an encore. maybe, just maybe.... but no, house lights were turned on. no encore. *sigh*

i looked at my watched and it was 11pm, they had been on stage for almost 2 hours. it didn't feel like it at all! there's a sing of a great show. screw all naysayers! mogwai is an amazing show to witness.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music:

have you noticed that every writeup of those imminent my bloody valentine shows says "they're sure to be incredibly loud" as opposed to "they're sure to be incredibly good"? this is always the danger with mogwai, that their beloved quiet-quiet-quiet-loud-loud-loud style will subsume their substance, will suck the drama out of their often brutally beautiful songs and turn everything into a cheap on/off-switch parlor trick. tonight, as they prepare to scoot upstate and join mbv for this weekend's all tomorrow's parties hoedown, our affable heroes run about half and half. sorry if this is blasphemy, but first thing they gotta do is retire "mogwai fear satan."

yes, it is their most famous song, their most epic blend of serenity and shrieking mayhem, but during the soft parts they look just incredibly bored. "like herod," another beloved on/off banger, fares a bit better—generally these dudes seem happier the closer they inch toward pure metal, as evinced on their new the hawk is howling, wherein the punishing thrasher "batcat" shines brightest. but the highlight tonight, oddly enough, is "friend of the night," off 2006's vastly underrated mr. beast, delicate and piano-driven, eventually rising to a gale-force finale but getting there slowly, calmly, naturally, without all these peek-a-boo gut-punches that've served mogwai well but lack the staying power to pique even their interest anymore. so out with "satan"... in with "christmas steps," perhaps?

photos

http://flickr.com/photos/soulblend/sets/..

http://www.gettyimages.com/Search/Search.aspx?EventId=82846756#

http://www.prefixmag.com/photos/mogwai-fuck-buttons-terminal-5/

from nick carbonara:

mogwai's us tour diary

from mogwai.co.uk:

it’s just as we expected. driving into new york from any direction is a terrifying and uncomfortable odyssey that no person should have to endure more than once. we are nearly thrown from our bunks on a few occasions due to the moon-like road surface and at one point it sounds like the trailer containing all the gear has broken off the back of the bus and gifted us a fantastic opportunity to finally do that mogwai unplugged record we’ve been dying to do for many years. but all is good and we wake up most thankful, in the functioning city of new york……..midtown…..oh well, you can’t win them all. midtown is not a great deal of fun. nevertheless, we will seek and find a breakfast diner and have the first person we talk to say he has family in glasgow, near the art school where my wife graduated from. we go back to check that the sounds are ok at soundcheck and the sounds are just fine. check. matador takes a few of us out for dinner. only the most important ones of course, me, stuart, dominic and even simon smith (tour manager) who always enjoys a free meal on the pretense that he is there on business to usher us around, making sure we are not late for the all important show. the matador staff people are three sheets to the wind by the time we leave for the venue and the meal was very nice, thanks. i had lobster because when someone else rich is paying, you’ve got to. so to the gig. quite good i thought, though it sounded as if there were 300 people there due to my in-ear monitor system blocking out most of the crowd noise. they are useful pieces of equipment and they often block out crowd talking during songs but they can also make it feel like a quarter empty cricket ground has just applauded you. i was informed after the show that the people were really into it after all. i didn’t feel like socializing after the show much but i heard later that everyone in our band and crew that went to the afterparty at some bar called darkroom arrived there and no one was there. so they went to max fish, which had been a mogwai nyc local for 10 years and quickly things became drunky. it’s the first time ozzy (tech) and foxy (lights) have been to nyc and it sounds like they had a lot of fun and possibly too many drinks. they don’t look well in the morning but more of that in the next super exciting installment of mogwai in america : the quickening.