Live Review Mitski, Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London 26th September 2018

At first she moves in a deliberately calculated manner, as though a robot or wind-up doll: she paces up and down the stage with increasing fervour, eyes cast down at the floor during ‘Francis, Forever’, swivels her arms like the rotation of a washing machine in ‘Washing Machine Heart’ and wags her hands behind her ears during ‘I Bet On Losing Dogs’. But by the time she arrives at ‘Geyser’ and ‘Your Best American Girl’, she’s more like a dancer, diving across the stage, her arms extended, performing pliés and diving onto the floor in a way that would seem to be a spontaneous expression of emotion, if the knee pads she’s wearing didn’t very much reveal it’s all part of her show.

She’s joined by a four-piece band right through to the end, when they leave Mitski alone on-stage with an acoustic guitar to play ‘My Body’s Made of Crushed Little Stars’ in a short, almost-furious outburst, before performing a poignant rendition of ‘A Burning Hill’ and ‘Two Slow Dancers’, two of her most slowest and heartbreaking releases. “Just one more song and then goodbye…” she tells us before set closer ‘Goodbye, My Danish Sweetheart’, after which she leaves the stage with a little wave. It’s a performance in equal parts humble and theatrical that beckons the audience into Mitski’s world before deftly pushing them away.