southeast

And hey and hallo, the rest of you! How are you doing? Long time no hear. Did you like the recent remixes? I liked Siberian Breaks, but not so much the "Congratulations" one.

Yeah, do! They are great! Not so much of a dancy kind of gig though, more the stand-around-listen-and-have-a-beer-kind of thing. (at least here in Munich) I LOVED it.

Yeah, this thread will live forevah! Here's another pic. I thought mixing different denim colours in kinda fashionable at the moment? But I am not a fan of denim shirts, it's very 80ies style, isn't it? And James's hair: very samurai like . Perhaps it was just windy and they needed something to keep their hair outa their faces? Apparently there were 45.000 fans on that beach. Amazing.

How cool, thank you, Vanessa! I don't think I understand much of it, because of the whole technical stuff, but it really gives you an impression of how they work, how hard they work, how much they think about it all and how much they know about music. And apparently they are really glad to talk about this a lot. Makes me want to look up all this technical stuff they are talking about somewhere. And lol about James playing horn at 4 in the morning. And Andrew standing on a chair and singing...

Yeah, HAPPY NEW YEAR people! I have posted this on Tw. as well, but since I know some of you only from MFC: Listen to some psychadelic Thai disco music: "The Sound of Siam" http://www.soundwayrecords.com/

Thank you. I hope they'll like it. I know what you mean about the two of them. I like the way they don't care what people would think when f.e. Andrew sits in Matt's lap. They are so cool about it. And indeed "endearing" is the right word for them...

I dunno how early you should go to the venue. MGMT aren't Mika, they don't have this fan-club that follows them around. And they book smaller venues. So I don't think it's gonna be a problem. Late afternoon sounds good to me. Try to find the backstage after the gig, they come out pretty quick. And since that's the last gig of the tour there sure's gonna be a party afterwards. And Ben's birthday is one day before that. So if you are lucky it's gonna be a great evening. You told me you were pretty cool with Mika. So I don't think that would be a problem for you.

Yes, I know this. You should read the report of one of the girls later on this page: Will went out and gave the girls from the M&G VIP passorts and let them in the dressing rooms of the boys to chat with them. And after that they all went to a club where MGMT spend 3 more hours talking to different fans. Dammit, they are so nice, they can't really be true.

Now I am jealous too: http://mgmtforum.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=timepkriq44g8q98bubci9tpk4&topic=8379.0 Why didn't they do this in Munich, for Christ's sake.

I thought about you as I saw Ben. I was so surprised to see him going out to meet some fans. I can understand you so good, that you wanted to meet him, really! Sometimes I imagine they draw lots for who's doing the M&G. The one who loses has to go out. I think, for me it was important to say how good they were to anyone from the band, they all deserve to hear it. I really try to see them as MGMT, the band, not be fangirly for one of them. Thank you so much! I really love some of the bands they talk about. And I really have to listen to Bob Dylan and Neil Young very soon. So much to catch up with... No, nothing personal, just a naked pic of myself. I wrote them how I became their fan, the reasons why I love their music and their performances. And that I want a live album. Pronto. I am already mad at myself, because they'll sure laugh at me. But I hope at least one of them understands it. It was adressed to all of them. Will and Andrew? I haven't noticed that yet. Andrew and Matt are doing hilarious stuff at inteviews. They are so funny. And I really think they are very smart guys and though I love their music I don't always understand them. They are kind of elusive. Which is good. So I don't really want to analyze them. I have some male friends in my real life who act like that. And who I love, because they are really special and very decent and honest. The guys from MGMT remind me of them. Please guys, I really don't want you to be jealous. We're MGMT fans, right? We are special. I have the feeling a MGMT gig is always a good experience, something is always happening there and I am sure you will meet some of them at one of the next gigs. They are really very relaxed and approachable.

I love this, especially because you can hear Andrew playing the guitar. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWawd9Vvpb8&feature=related

The setlist:

Hi, people. I am still half-deaf and half-sleeping, since I didn’t get tons of sleep last night and spend 3 hours directly in front of the boxes. But I would like to write this down before I get out of the MGMT trip and find myself back in reality… I still can't believe it really happened. It was a brilliant evening, everything was pretty much perfect and at the same time relaxed. The security, the fans, the band, the M&G afterwards. With exception of me(). What happened was this: Arriving at the venue and getting inside was as easy as last time as we saw VW. We arrived at 7 and were let inside at 7:30 and since the evening was really warm, we didn’t even freeze while waiting. I took a quick look at the back side of the venue, where the tour busses were waiting and saw Dan T., who’s the official filming guy, inside, talking to some security people. I knew it was him, because I have seen pictures of him on the Internet. The crowd was really young and everybody was drinking wine directly out of the bottles. People pushed a lot and some came later and made their way directly to the venue doors. But hey, this was an MGMT gig, so nobody said anything to them. People just laughed. After getting in we strolled to the right side of stage and were lucky that the 1st row was still empty there, perhaps because it was directly in front of the boxes. I wanted to go to the left side, because I wanted to have a better look at Ben, but the sight was much better on the right side. So we bought some beer, I took a look at the merch but didn’t find anything nice for myself. As we stood in the 1st row and waited for the Smith Westerns to come on stage I suddenly saw Dan walking down the front line with a girl with a camera. So I waved at him. I still don’t know why I did this, I don’t really know him but I guess I was excited to see a face I knew. And he saw me and came up to us and asked me if I was waving at him. I said, yes and if he’s Dan. He was surprised that I knew him and I explained. So he started filming and asking questions: Are we big MGMT fans? What song would we like to hear tonight? How are our names and what are we doing for a living? As he heard I come from Bulgaria he asked me to say something in Bulgarian to the band. And as he heard I am a psychologist he asked me to analyze MGMT’s music, f.e. Siberian Breaks. Ugh. I didn’t really know what to answer to this, I’ve never tried this. So I answered why I love their music instead. I also told him that we really appreciate “Congratulations” and that the boys should know that many fans come to gigs because of that, that I love the whole album, that they should go on writing music like this, that I love their jam sessions on stage etc. The whole thing. He told me that they have a good feeling about the reception of “Congratulations”, people sing along the lyrics at gigs, shout “Brian Eno” as a wish and that their sound checks are really the best jam sessions of all. So if you can, go to that sound check next time you see them. And that the Berlin gig was good but that the Munich gig will be even better, because they don’t have any time limits this time. He told me the whole stuff is being filmed, the band watching everything he films (which made me even more nervous than I already was), and that if they make use of the interview they would ask me before doing it, so I have to give him some kind of address. Hehe, if I were standing alone there, I would have thought this is some kind of come on. So I told him my Twittername. I also told him I had something for the band and he told me to pass it to him, he’ll give to the band. And he told me I should send him a Tweet, we could talk on Twitter and that he answers people (but he doesn’t ever, really.) Yeah. I was so excited. It was so cool. He was so nice. I ran out of the venue, took my stuff out of the car, ran inside again and asked the security guy to pass it over to him since he had already moved on. He took it and assured me again he’ll give it to them. I wrote them the letter I told you about. And I translated a German review of “Congratulations” that made me listen to their music for the first time. It is a pretty good one, in a very important newspaper, so I thought they would like to know what the German press writes about their music. So this was what I gave them. I really, really hope I didn’t say anything stupid in that camera or write anything totally idiotic in my letter. Gulp. Of course now I remember all the funny, intelligent stuff I actually wanted to say to him and to write them, but it’s too late anyway. And I wasn’t prepared to talk to someone for such a long time and answer questions about their music and stuff like that. So Huikings, be prepared for everything! So you can imagine that after this experience I was really speechless for a long while. My guy told me: “Ok, so now we’re finished here, right? You got what you wanted, now we can go home.” The Smith Westerns were pretty good, very young. I saw Ben and Will listening to them for a while backstage. MGMT started playing at about 9:45 p.m. I am sorry, I don’t remember the exact setlist but they started with Congratulations, then Time to Pretend, after that, random list: Electric Feel, The Youth, Of Birds, Moons and Monsters, Brian Eno, Dan Tracy, I found a whistle, It’s working, Siberian Breaks and directly after that Kids, Flash Delirium. They did a cover of a song I don’t know. I must look it up yet. 2 songs for an encore, Destrokk and The Handshake with jam at the end… What can I say, they are such good musicians live, it’s amazing. Andrew was talking random stuff: “I wanna see you guys smile, I want to see you smile, but oh, well, I guess one can’t HEAR a smile”. “You are beautiful”. People hurled headbands on stage and he hung them on the micro. I didn’t see much of Will and Matt, a bit of Ben. Who I watched a lot was James. He’s crazy. He danced like mad, he was, you know, enjoying himself, saying mad stuff to the audience, drinking beer, dancing wildly around the stage, while Kids were being played he sat down on the box right in front of me, put his arm around the security and hugged him and wanted to share his beer with him. He was really on some kind of stuff, and yet he played well. Only at the end he just played random stuff and swayed around. Andrew looked at him and laughed. But I had the feeling he was watching him pretty closely most of the time. Perhaps he wasn’t quite sure if James is going to make it through the whole gig… I dunno, only my stupid interpretation. The gig was so good, because I really could concentrate on the music, watch them communicate, see them smile at each other. There was a lot of dancing and screaming going on, but also lots of fans enjoying the music, singing along, listening, being quiet and calm. I was happy about that! Happy to know they have nice fans. I really start to think musicians attract the same kind of people as they are. The crowd was clearly enjoying it all. People danced a lot, sang along, were having a party. But they were mostly very nice. The girl next to me shouted: “Boogie Down” a few times. About jamming: they didn’t do it A LOT. Just at the end, with Handshake and Of Birds, Moons and Monsters. I wish they would have done it a lot more, f.e. at Brian Eno or Sib. Breaks. But I guess they’re just tired now, they have a new gig every single night and seem to party in between, so… The gig ended at about 11:15 p.m. Dan was filming all the time and after the gig he came to us and made high ten (you know, clapping both hands against mine) with me and asked us how we liked it. After that he walked through the venue to talk to other people. We got our coats, walked to the back side of the venue and Will and Ben already waited. Some girls were already attacking them, asking for autographs and talking to them, but there were only like 10 people all in all. Will was drinking a beer and they were both very patient, took pictures with the fans, signed stuff and so on. So I could have talked to them for some time. But I didn’t. I don’t know, I gave them the letter, I said what I wanted in that camera, so I had the feeling this is enough. I went to Will and thanked him for the gig, told him they did a brilliant job and that the Handshake is getting better every time I listen to it. So he asked if I have seen them live more than once and I explained that I’ve seen lots of livestreams. Then I went to Ben and also thanked him for the gig, said that it’s a real pleasure to listen to their music. He smiled real nice and looked at me and said “Well, thank you!” And he signed my CD. (Of course I was thinking: “Oh, if I had known I would meet him afterwards as well, I could have given my letter to HIM instead to Dan and explained about the article and talked to him for some more time, grumble, grumble…” Fans, or should I say women are never satisfied, right?). I was really happy to see Ben! Even more than seeing Andrew, tbh. Cause Andrew would intimidate me, I suppose. Ben looked nice, Will too. Ben even talked on stage a few times but I didn’t understand him, as I was standing too far away. And at the M&G he was smiling and quiet and patient. And then I went away. I didn’t want a pic. I am not such a big picture fan. They were taking pictures all the time, but for me it was more important to thank them for the gig and to say it in a non fangirly way. While walking to the car, I thought about turning around and talking to them again, but somehow I didn’t want to disturb them any further. I could have wished them a nice time in Europe, asked stuff about the 3rd album, asked them about a live DVD, told them to come back soon… But, you know, what will be, will be. If Dan’s filming that much, I am optimistic about them bringing some sort of documentary at some point. And they will write some new songs soon and will tour again. I can wait for that. That’s it. I still hear strange noises in my ears and can’t hear properly. But it was worth it. They really are a brilliant, brilliant band. Oh, yes, I forgot, my guy liked them very much as well and really enjoyed himself. Actually he has a much better music taste then me, so I am really happy about that.