múm - Live At The Pyramid

It’s not everyday the band holding a commanding first place lead on your personal last.fm page comes to town, so, naturally, múm’s first-ever appearance in the Peg instilled in me enormously high expectations. Fortunately, the show matched my lofty designs. Almost.

My only complaint was the set list leaning too heavily on new material - it would’ve been great to hear more of the spacious, ethereal tunes from past-singer Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir's era (incl. ‘02’s Finally We Are No One and ‘04’s Summer Make Good). The new female singers certainly have the golden pipes for that stuff.

One unanticipated bonus from the post-Kristin-era-heavy set was watching/hearing the band reconstruct the meticulous sonic detail of the two most recent records (‘07’s Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy and August’s Sing Along To Songs You Don’t Know). Mournful cellos, wheezing melodicas, skittish drumming, guitars, bountiful boy-girl harmonies, and even cue cards were expressively deployed. It was mesmerizingly textured.

The highlight for me, though, came during the single-song encore when the band played the stunning moodscaper “Green Grass of Tunnel,” one of only two songs not off Go Go… and Sing Along…. It would’ve been great to hear more past staples like “We Have a Map of the Piano,” “I’m 9 Today” or “Slow Bicycle”, but there’s always next time. After all, co-founder Orvar (middle photo) did say, “We are very happy to be in Winnipeg for the first time. Hopefully it isn’t our last” And, well, I believe him.

Set List (to the best of my knowledge) -
1. Illuminated
2. If I Were A Fish
3. Marmalade Fires
4. A Little Bit Sometimes
5. (Unsure)
6. Hullaballabalu
7. The Smell Of Today Is Like Sweet Breast Milk
8. Show Me
9. Nightly Cares
10. Blessed Brambles
11. Dancing Behind My Eyelids
12. They Made Frogs Smoke ‘Til They Explode
13. Prophecies Reverse Memories
14. Sing Along

Encore
1. Green Grass Of Tunnel

Sin Fang Bous, also from Iceland, was one of two openers. Their short set was enjoyable: sleek and squeaky clean indie-pop. Prior to them classically-trained cellist Hildur Gudnadottir performed several intense cello pieces. Loved that too (sorry, no photos).

Infinite Playlist: My Morning Jacket - Z