The alternative-pop musician has already staked a claim as a great American songwriter with her latest and best album, the Nashville-influenced The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We. But her January 26 sold-out tour opener in Miami Beach did not simply manifest the expansive, symphonic country pop record as a spectacular live experience — it solidified her as an iconic onstage presence of generational significance, a star coming into its own, expanding outward, exploding into a long-lasting supernova.
Much of the show's magnificence came down to its stage design, which worked hand in hand with Mitski's own magnetic, larger-than-life stage presence. Minimal, yet with an Old Hollywood sense of glamour that recalled classic studio musicals and midcentury décor, the setup consisted of little more than a single, circular platform in the dead center of the stage, around which the eight-piece backing band would play, along with various ever-changing lighting schemes. Her entrance established the theatricality she would deploy for the rest of the show: From behind a circular curtain hanging above the platform, she wiggled along with the opening tune, "Everyone," making hand motions like a Balinese shadow puppet. The shadow then began to expand, like an Oscar trophy silhouette growing bigger and bigger, looming over the crowd until the curtain finally dropped from the rafters and revealed her. Not even Norma Desmond could dream of such a dramatic entrance.
For the rest of the show, the singer, clad in a simple white button-down and black pants, would remain the center of attention, with choreographed, pantomimelike dances and movements tying in thematically with each song. "I Bet On Losing Dogs," an ironic assessment of hard luck, saw her crawling around on all fours, eventually curling up and playing dead. A medley of "Thursday Girl" and "Geyser," both of which revolve around the gnawing need for validation and satisfaction, ended with her repeatedly slamming against an invisible door, fed up with the search. A stabbing motion toward the crotch in "Working for the Knife" offered an angle of the song as a loose metaphor for patriarchal exploitation. Props and lighting cues were also utilized, including spotlights that became a night sky for the searching, climactic "Star."
![Mitski performing on stage](https://media2.miaminewtimes.com/mia/imager/u/blog/18855920/mitski_fillmore_miami_beach_concert_credit_michele_eve_sandberg_07.jpg?cb=1706543133)
Mitski's show was minimal, with theatrical flourishes. See more photos of Mitski's concert at the Fillmore Miami Beach here.
Photo by Michele Eve Sandberg
One showstopping moment rose above all the others, and of course it came during the gorgeous slide-guitar "My Love Mine All Mine." The song became Mitski's first Billboard chart hit last year, and she gives it all the pomp and circumstance worthy of the swooning track. As the music played, a mobile of bronze metal shards lowered from a circular lighting rig above the stage, shimmering in a cone-shaped light cast from above like a massive Christmas tree. It was breathtaking, and the crowd, which had been at a fever pitch all night, reacting to every song with screams of delight, positively erupted as the display climaxed. Only "Nobody," another hit from Be the Cowboy, and a bit of stage banter conducted in Spanish rivaled it in crowd reaction.
![Mitski performing on stage](https://media1.miaminewtimes.com/mia/imager/u/blog/18855916/mitski_fillmore_miami_beach_concert_credit_michele_eve_sandberg_05.jpg?cb=1706543133)
Mitski's performance proved she's earned the level of fame she's currently enjoying. See more photos of Mitski's concert at the Fillmore Miami Beach here.
Photo by Michele Eve Sandberg
For older fans, the "Mitskimania" crowd experience can get annoying very quickly. And yet, such wild, joyfully hysterical reactions also prove what a star Mitski is about to become. To paraphrase "Nobody," I've seen her play venues big and small and big and small again, and now, everybody wants her. Every one of those kids who sold out the Fillmore saw themselves reflected in Mitski's music and its bittersweet melancholy and melodrama. Those younger fans all came away from the experience as changed and deep in rapture as I was — possibly even more so.
Setlist
- "Everyone"
- "Buffalo Replaced"
- "Working for the Knife"
- "The Frost"
- "The Deal"
- "Valentine, TX"
- "I Bet On Losing Dogs"
- "Thursday Girl"
- "Geyser"
- "I Love Me After You"
- "First Love / Late Spring"
- "Star"
- "Heaven"
- "I Don't Like My Mind"
- "Happy"
- "My Love Mine All Mine"
- "Last Words of a Shooting Star"
- "Pink in the Night"
- "I'm Your Man"
- "I Don't Smoke"
- "Bug Like an Angel"
- "Love Me More"
- "Fireworks"
- "Nobody"
- "Washing Machine Heart"