How do you follow up a smash debut album and tour with Harry Styles? Is it sitting at home wondering how you can top it and feeling like a poser? Maybe, but synth-pop band MUNA has come back with a mature and well-produced sophomore album in “Saves the World”, released on September 6th. The first single off the album, “Number One Fan” starts with “So I heard the bad news, nobody likes me and I’m gonna die alone in my bedroom”. Wow, what a beginning! But, in actuality, the song is about loving yourself and making sure you’re your biggest fan. “I’m coming for everyone and coming on strong, new hair and new shoes, yeah, I get what I like because I do what I want”. You can’t save the world unless you take care of yourself first. Touring in support of their latest record, MUNA hit Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn for two nights, October 10th and 11th, with the second night being National Coming Out Day. How apropos!
Opening for MUNA was Chelsea Jade (aka Chelsea Jade Metcalf), a singer/songwriter from New Zealand. Jade and her two dancers were dressed in black and under very subdued lighting. With the choreographed dance and jerky movements, if the music wasn’t so impactful, I would call it more performance art than anything else. But the lyrics are engaging and Jade comes down from the stage a couple of times, including the crowd in her circle and bringing them in. I think that a stage in the round would be perfect for her shows and would draw the fans even closer.
It’s pretty incredible to see MUNA playing to a capacity crowd at Music Hall of Williamsburg just a couple of years after they played at Mercury Lounge. Their music is deeply personal and definitely speaks to the younger generation of music fans. These fans knew the words to every song! When you feel like the lyrics are speaking to you directly, how much more personal can they get when the whole crowd is singing them? Before they finished playing, vocalist Katie Gavin did say they weren’t coming back for an encore because they felt that leaving the stage and coming back would create too much of a sense of abandonment! So true and why bother since they’re so cliche? Often times, musicians play shows that are exactly reflection of their records. For MUNA, their shows are an honest representation of their work but amped up by 100x!! This high energy show is one that every fan needs to experience.
NOTE: all photographs are copyright of Howard Shiau Photography
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