Mew

I naively thought that a phenomenon like Mew would draw a much bigger turnout. The 2009 tour for "No More Stories..." had left Italy empty-handed, stretching an already six-year wait. A week before the sole Milan date, the venue was moved from Magazzini Generali to the smaller Tunnel Club, where the crowd that showed up didn't even reach two hundred people. Add to that the fact that, just hours earlier, the supporting act had been forced to pull out due to unresolvable production issues, and the evening really seemed to be starting under a bad sign.

Despite the band's slight, barely concealed irritation – pointedly noted twice, with great elegance, by the guitarist – it can't be said that the fans' hopes were let down. The most original and talented Danish band around (and not just Danish) delivered a flawless performance, carefully selecting the best moments from the recent "+ –" alongside the enduring highlights of a career that calling brilliant would be an understatement.

The night was built mainly around pairs of songs, starting with "Witness" and lead single "Satellites", an epic track that set a new state of the art for indie rock; later on came "Water Slides" and the frantic "My Complications", featuring one of the most electrifying guitar parts of the year.

From the previous album, meanwhile, the gems "Beach" and a moving "Silas The Magic Car" were brought out early, along with the much-awaited "Introducing Palace Players", as powerful and precise as on record (thus dispelling its reputation as the great absentee from their setlists). The impact was forceful, even if some of the finer arrangement details inevitably got lost in the mix, and Jonas's voice showed no sign of strain.

In cases like this, the lack of major surprises is hardly a problem: the one-two representing "The Glass Handed Kites" was obviously "Special" and "The Zookeeper's Boy", rounded out later by "Apocalypso". The same goes for the cornerstones of "Frengers": the dry, syncopated riff of "Am I Wry? No" was followed by a "156" initially held back in atmospheric mode, with the drums only coming in from the chorus onward.

A deeply sweet pre-finale came with just the coda of "Louise Louisa", during which the chorus of "The Zookeeper's Boy" resurfaced, taken up by the audience as well. Too short but absolutely necessary was the encore of "Comforting Sounds", the official farewell of this now-legendary indie-pop outfit.

The final word on how this show turned out, then, belonged to the enthusiasm of a crowd I've rarely seen so devoted and respectful (save for the obligatory heckler), and in turn to that of the band, who ultimately understood that among the small number of people there, probably almost no one was there by chance. For one reason or another, I think we'll remember an occasion like this for a long time.

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