The otherworldly sounds of Mew are coming to Neumo’s tonight and nobody is more excited about this fact than yours truly. No joke, when I got word I could get into the show for free and possibly have the chance to interview them, the e-mail alert sound on my phone was “Introducing Palace Players”. When they first put that song on their myspace page, I couldn’t just listen to it once and exit out the window. I had to listen to it at least three or four times before making myself turn it off. Nobody sounds like Mew. It’s not difficult to identify their influences, especially in their older, more guitar driven stuff but listen to No More Stories… and where do you even begin? This album might be the most pleasant sensory overload I’ve ever experienced. I can’t wait to see how they pull it off live. I saw them at the legendary Black Cat in Washington, D.C a couple of years ago and was impressed by how they replicated all their album songs and then some in a live setting. They stand on the shoulders of giants. I read an interview that they described themselves as “the world’s only indie stadium band.” That’s probably the only way to describe the band in a nutshell. Lately I’ve heard people on the Internet slap the term “Prog Rock” on the backs of Mew and I thumb my nose in the general direction of those people. Just because Jonas sings in an alien-like voice at times, doesn’t make it prog rock. Sigh. Humans and their silly labels. Three things you should know about tonight:
1) Mew are here in support of one of the best albums of the year. In the last couple of months they’ve opened up for the Pixies and Nine Inch Nails, two bands at are much better than your shitty indie band. Yeah, they’ve got street credibility.

2) Lead singer Jonas Bjerre and guitarist Bo Madsen met when they were six years old, but didn’t become friends until seventh grade when they were assigned a film project? What does this mean for you, gentle reader? It means that Mew has awesome visuals going on behind them. The somewhat bizarre off color imagery compliments the music perfectly and adds to the live show experience.

3) I’m so caught up on Mew playing tonight that I failed to mention local darlings the Lonely Forest opening up for them. If you haven’t seen them yet, I suggest you check it out before you read about them in Time magazine or something crazy. The Lonely Forest put on a very sincere and convincing show.

Hope to see you there.