Mitski was angel and devil: music, dance, theater and emotional therapy in two concerts in Lima | CHRONICLE

She appeared like a ghost on the stage, completely white and illuminated, and the reception from the people was brutal. It would be necessary to measure the decibels of those screams –almost all from his very young followers–, which must be among the highest and most acute that any show in Lima has caused in recent months.

Mitsuki Laycock Miyawaki, or simply Mitski, is a 32-year-old singer, the daughter of an American father and a Japanese mother. Although she has already had an important career since 2012, with six studio albums to her credit, in recent years she has generated a surprising following among a teenage audience that, in some peculiar way, has managed to connect with the compositions of she.

Depression, anxiety, heartbreak and loneliness are some of Mitski’s great themes, although they are often tinged with irony and black humor. The viscerality of his lyrics is also combined with a powerful voice and an enviable stage presence. Like the one she showed on Tuesday night and Wednesday in Lima, in two concerts that quickly sold out.

A captivating performance, from which it is difficult to take your eyes off. Mitski resorts to the enigmatic japanese butoh to materialize with his body those feelings that his songs contain. And she then becomes a highly histrionic dancer: a mixture of ballet dancer, mime, porcelain doll, karate fighter, angel possessed by an internal demon.

daggers in the heart

After his spectral entrance, Mitski begins his ‘setlist’ with “Love Me More” and “Working for the Knife”, songs from the album “Laurel Hell”, which he released this year. A little further on he breaks in “I Bet On Losing Dogs”, a somber song with great allegorical beauty about defeat and that thanatic drive always present in his work. “Me & My Husband” was another of the most sung by the public that was already infected by the dramatic atmosphere in the Arena Peru.

“Nobody”, of course, was among the best received. Like “Should’ve Been Me”, “Your Best American Girl”, the very ‘synth’ “The Only Heartbreaker”, and the shocking “Once More to See You”, ballad about impossible love, pain and madness that demonstrates Laycock’s talent as a writer: “If you would let me give you pinky promise kisses, then I wouldn’t have to scream your name atop every roof in the city of my heart”.

His songs are short as daggers that penetrate just enough to wound mortally. Played live, in some cases they are even dissonant or anticlimactic in their closings, but perfectly executed by the band that accompanies it. Excellent musicians who, however, know that the reflectors must be on the overflowing and magnetic star. A Mitski so entranced that she takes the microphone like a knife that slices her neck, or like a sex toy that is placed between her legs.

Near the end it sounds “Happy”, a parody song about false happiness and illusions, in which Mitski sketches feigned smiles at the public to give greater relief and meaning to his composition. After “Two Slow Dancers” and a brief exit from the stage, he returns to close with “A Pearl”, in front of a mass of moved listeners. “Thanks for coming. Love you very much. Goodbye, ”says the singer who hardly utters words during her hour and a half of concert. She doesn’t need more of her either: the music and her body are the ones that speak for her. Luxuries that an impeccable artist with enormous projection can give herself. Be careful with her.