MGMT, July 25, Starlight Ballroom

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MGMT, July 25, Starlight Ballroom

POSTED: Monday, July 28, 2008, 6:00 PM

Filed Under: Music Show

Photo | Liz Tung

On Friday night, over the top was par for the course as shiny young hepcats flooded the Starlight for a sold-out show by electropop it-boys MGMT.

Photo | Liz Tung

The Brooklyn-based duo, who broke into Pitchfork territory last year with their full-length debut Oracular Spectacular, specialize in irresistible pop hooks mashed up with trippy psychedelic breakdowns. Those breakdowns are part of what has allowed MGMT to maintain some semblance of artistic (or at least non-mainstream) credibility. On Friday, however, the crowd seemed restless with the band’s somewhat sloppy bouts of improvisation; I even spotted some rabid enthusiastic adolescent girls near the stage sneaking their phones out for a quick text during the sprawling jam-fest "Metanoia" (which, appropriately enough, means "repentance," according to Wikipedia).

But even the most self-indulgent songs weren’t enough to prevent the crowd from falling into hand-waving rapture over MGMT’s dubiously ironic anthems to youth, glitter and excess (think Lord of the Flies + glam rock decadence + being on coke). Songs like “Electric Feel” and “Time to Pretend” did feel somewhat soulless in this regard — but I couldn’t stop whistling them the whole way home.

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