Mew

Mew, that is: cartoons (the band's name) and crocheted wounds (their sound).

This evocative image, taken from one of the most graceful songs on the Danish band's last, masterful album, "No More Stories", perfectly suits the psychedelic, dreamy and intimate mood the Copenhagen quartet has carried with it for quite a few years now, one that has taken them from the cold lands of post-rock to the more refined, embroidered territories of pop tout-court.

Hugely famous at home and something of a cult act scattered across Europe (except in Italy, which has indeed snubbed them without much ceremony): their Berlin date at the Lido on October 29 seems, without a doubt, like an opportunity not to be missed, and we're not wrong.

Let's get the one gripe out of the way now: that scant hour and ten minutes of set, however meagre, remains a bit hard to swallow, especially since this is a band with five albums behind it, and even just digging a little deeper into the tracklist of their latest studio effort could certainly have offered a few more moments of pleasure (just think of "Repeater Beater", "Vaccine" or "Silas The Magic Car", mysteriously left out).

Aside from that, pure magic and a great performance confirming just how much good stuff lies beneath the ethereal, velvety surface of the Mew sound: the dense web of sounds, melodies, vocals, counter-vocals, off-beats and at times "impossible" rhythms that has always characterized their songs might make you think it could all be reduced to (very effective) post-production work, yet live the Danes prove impeccable, extremely precise and faithful in every way to the "record effect", just to make clear that the backing-track baggage can safely be left at home by other, more naive and unprepared bands.

The opening is entrusted to "Reprise" and "New Terrain", excellent at creating, from the very first note, an atmosphere of transcendent immersion; then all it takes is the incredible math-rock riff of "Introduce Palace Players" to instantly transport us into their sublime cartoon world made of fragmented guitars, melodies of staggering beauty ("Beach"), falsetto harmonies as sweet as sugar ("Am I Wry No") and post-rock codas ("White Lips Kissed") that come crashing down on you like streams of molten gold.

Making everything even more evocative and "fairy-tale" like are the projections on screen, which look as though they've sprung from the imagination of a children's book illustrator (humanoid deer dancing, squirrels playing violins, watery jellyfish, children in a circle doing handclapping during "Sometimes Life Isn't Easy"), or that glorify the almost "epic" moments of certain songs with geometric patterns and bursts of color.

"Comforting Sounds" closes the show as a long, powerful elegy in suite form, but the most moving moment comes with the encores of "Special" and "Zookeeper's Boy", written to be sung along in chorus with the kind of abandon typical of those who have cast off every "adult" reservation and fully immersed themselves in the magical, "childlike" spirit of the Mew sound.

A warmly recommended experience, and one we hope, sooner or later, will also reach those in Italy.

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