Monday, June 7th was definitely a night to remember for the sold out crowd at the Granada Theatre. We took our usual spot in front of the stage just in time to catch the unfamiliar sound of Canon Blue. I checked out a few songs before the show and was not only pleased with their sound, but also their live performance - considering frontman Daniel James plays all the instruments himself on Canon Blue's debut album "The Colonies." The set had a dreamy, folktronica haze blending sweet melodies with distorted sounds and heavy bass. Before they left the stage he warned the crowd we were " in for a real treat visually and aurally,” which was a huge understatement.
After machines produced enough fog to make it resemble the Devin the Dude show, blue-purple and white lasers blinded the crowd as six shadowy figures emerged on stage wearing mysterious white masks with a huge backdrop of their mascot, the Jackalope (a creepy rabbit with antlers). Meet Miike Snow, a swedish electronica-pop band - were no one in it is actually named Miike Snow. The six musicians on stage had quite the set up: guitar, keyboards and pianos, drums and synthesizers, fog machines, strobe lights and lasers of every color shining every which way - if that’s not a dance party, I don’t know what is. They started out with up-beat hits like “Cult Logic," “Plastic Jungle” and “Black and Blue” all from their self-titled debut. The song “Animal” was easily the crowd fave thanks to the extended outro that turned the crowd from swaying and nodding to full on out-of-control jumping, dancing and screaming. After an hour of pouring sweat and being pushed and shoved along with the crowd, I wanted to leave as soon as the last song finished, but when the mysterious figures returned for an encore to play “In search of” I suddenly didn’t mind that my make-up was running, my jeans were stuck to my legs, and my hair was knotted. That song was mind-blowing and Miike Snow successfully put on one of the greatest live shows I have ever seen. It will be awhile before the Granada experiences something like that again.
