\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div> \t\t\t\t\tMitski at Hollywood High School<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChris Willman\/Variety<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tA few of the tracks on \u201cNothing\u2019s About to Happen to Me\u201d left off the piano, strings or steel and stuck fairly close to the original concept of a straight rock-band album. It was no surprise those were among the highlights when she brought the material to the stage with this basic and tight a unit. That would very much include \u201cWhere\u2019s My Phone?,\u201d the perhaps deceptively loud and grungy single, and also the slow-burning, loud-erupting \u201cIf I Leave,\u201d along with \u201cRules\u201d and \u201cThat White Cat.\u201d It\u2019s fun how \u201cRules\u201d is allowed to go off the rails at the end, as Mitski lets the counting go past 4 or 5 all the way up to an unruly 11, and in how \u201cThat White Cat\u201d clangs hard and rough enough to leave a mark, just like the territory-claiming stray of the title is out to mark its territory.<\/p>\n \n\tVisually, the difference between this and the \u201924 tour is much vaster. Then, she was a study in one-woman choreography, constantly striking photogenic poses with her arms, without and without a single chair at center stage that provided a sole prop to move around or stand on. On this tour, the postures struck are much fewer and farther in-between, or less planned and deliberate-seeming. In Thursday\u2019s show, there was a section in the middle of \u201cDead Women\u201d that she spent very, very, very slowly hiking her dress up, from beneath her knees nearly to crotch level, like the world\u2019s slowest (and, if it fits in with the nature of the lyrics, angriest) act of foreplay. I figured that was a nightly stage mannerism, but then saw photos from other nights in the run where she wasn\u2019t wearing a dress at all, so evidently not. <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tMitski at Hollywood High School, April 2. 2026<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLexie Alley<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tThere is production design and a few props, but not to any overwhelming purpose, other than perhaps to suggest the house where a lady who loves rescue kitties might be thinking all these alternately independent and co-dependent thoughts about love and trust. For \u201cCats\u201d (not to be confused with \u201cThat White Cat\u201d!), she sat at a desk with a tiny lamp, musing about whether or not to transform herself back into \u201csomeone you still like.\u201d For \u201cWhere\u2019s My Phone?,\u201d she literally picked up the pace, pacing back and forth and twirling until finally, as the song reached a frenzied climax, she threw herself face-first into a plush armchair at stage right. During \u201cHeaven,\u201d she twisted her body at a 45-degree angle. For the always crowd-pleasing \u201cWashing Machine,\u201d she pointed at herself, kind of hilariously, as she beseeched, \u201cBaby will you kiss me already?\u2026 Why not me?\u201d In \u201cDan the Dancer,\u201d to match the fun, furious drumming, she danced around like\u2026 well, like a schoolgirl. <\/p>\n \n\tBut these were more like performance anomalies than the showy rule of the evening. Much of the time, she just stayed centered, content to know she didn\u2019t have to do much than deliver a vocal, with or without a dramatic stare into the balcony, to bring a rapt audience into her calmness. And then you\u2019re doing a bunch of songs that kind of seem to be about mortality near the end (the new \u201cLightning,\u201d definitely, and the encore of \u201cPearl Diver\u201d from her debut album, probably), some stillness is probably in order.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cMy Love Mine All Mine,\u201d her biggest hit, was saved for the penultimate number of the main set. It might be shorter than just about anyone else\u2019s signature song is, but she made the most of it, letting spotlights train on a pair of disco mirror half-balls affixed to the stage, briefly turning the Hollywood High auditorium into the site of a star-filled prom.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tMitski at Hollywood High School, April 2. 2026<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLexie Alley<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tAn even bigger difference in Mitski\u2019s live show this time around is the sheer amount of film footage put up on screen behind her and the band, all of it chosen with some apparent thought toward the song being illustrated. \u201cWhere\u2019s My Phone?\u201d featured amusing scenes from the 1950s of women answering or talking on telephones; whoever compiled this footage actually managed to find a scene of a woman reaching out and searching for a missing phone \u2014 a landline, obviously, in those days \u2014 on her nightstand. The waltz \u201cHeaven\u201d was presented as a woman\u2019s dream of dancing with a frilly-shirted flamenco dancer. \u201cRules\u201d sported footage from instructional videos for etiquette for kids (\u201cThank the hostess!\u201d). \u201cStay Soft,\u201d a song Mitski has described as being \u201cabout hurt people finding each other, and using sex to make sense of their pain,\u201d was amusingly accompanied by footage of Bela Lugosi and his female conquests (or sex-starved, willing victims?) in \u201cDracula.\u201d The rocker \u201cFrancis Forever,\u201d with its lines about \u201cyou don\u2019t see me,\u201d used footage from \u201cThe Invisible Man,\u201d meanwhile, naturally. And the new song \u201cI\u2019ll Change for You,\u201d which extols the merits of women drinking in bars without male companions, used footage of Ann Sheridan at a San Francisco bar in the classic 1950 film noir \u201cWoman on the Run.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tMitski performs with a backdrop of footage of Ann Sheridan in \u2018Woman on the Run\u2019 at Hollywood High School.<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tChris Willman\/Variety<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tSome of these visuals were used for comic or ironic effect, but there were spookier or more abstract moments in the juxtapositions, too. \u201cA Horse Named Cold Air\u201d mostly showed widescreen flowing water, albeit with a flash of a white horse, as quick and unnerving as David Lynch\u2019s use of the same passing image in \u201cTwin Peaks.\u201d Possibly the best use of visuals all night came with the most basic: \u201cI Leave You\u201d was accompanied just by blank but scratched-up film stock \u2014 but, in the raging mid-section of the song, the scratches themselves got faster and more furious, before both the music and the film calmed down again. It was a simple but ingenious effect.<\/p>\n \n\tMitski can come off as such a mystery during each performance segment that it comes almost as an abrupt surprise when she breaks the fourth wall and talks to the audience a few times in the course of a performance\u2026 and reveals herself to be kinda a normal hang of a human being. At one point, she explained her intentions for having the show here, or at least what she hoped the result would be.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt feels like cheating to do these shows at a high school,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re basically bringing y\u2019all to possibly one of the most traumatizing places, get you all in emotional turmoil, sit you down, and then unleash this music on you. Ha ha ha ha. I got you primed.\u201d But, she added encouragingly, \u201cit\u2019s dark in here. No one can see you. You can cry. I\u2019m crying on the inside.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAs things came to a close, she prepped the audience: \u201cThe next song will be our last song.\u201d Awwwww. \u201cI know,\u201d she responded, \u201cbut it\u2019ll be nice to go home.\u201d I can\u2019t remember the last time I heard a performer assure her audience that leaving would be as enjoyable as coming. What good is<\/em> sitting alone in your room? Plenty, in Mitski\u2019s world, which, once again, she\u2019s found a transformative way to put on stage. <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
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