Unknown Mortal Orchestra @ Wiltern Theater (5/11/18) // Show Review
Photographs and article by Ethan Lee
On a bustling Friday night in the heart of Los Angeles’ Koreatown, the Wiltern Theater is nearly at its busiest of the week. The art deco, near-turquoise colored theater is an instantly recognizable spot for anyone looking for something to do in LA, accentuated by its towering height and imposing stature and lighting along Wilshire Boulevard. May 11th, 2018 was one of those nights, and Unknown Mortal Orchestra, the psychedelic indie rock band formed by Ruban Nielson, was set to play.
Unknown Mortal Orchestra is a cultural hybrid of a band, hailing from both Auckland, New Zealand, and Portland, Oregon. They first received significant attention as a band after their first, mysterious Bandcamp release “Ffunny Ffriends,” which would later appear on their debut self-titled LP, received critical and audience praise. Fast forward 8 years later, and the band has seen significant success and growth, topped with the release of their fourth and latest album, Sex & Food, in April and an accompanying tour. The tour kicked off in late April in Northampton, MA, and has finally made its way through California and the heart of Los Angeles at the Wiltern. The sold-out audience was prepared to hear their favorite lo-fi indie rock band perform a trippy set. What they got was a bit more.
Those familiar with the Wiltern already know of its intricately-designed art deco interior. From the general admission, one can admire the geometrical ceiling and the column-like walls that rise up towards it. A swooping balcony looms over the ground level, the latter segmented for optimal audience views. On the stage was Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s setup. White fur rugs covered parts of the temporary platforms built on stage, providing a soft cushion for the electronic keyboards and drum set. A pristine, IKEA-like table sat at the very front; atop it, a white record player with two speakers. Below the table were vinyl records proudly displayed from, perhaps, Ruban’s personal collection, including an unusual Miles Davis record, You’re Under Arrest. Forming the backdrop of the stage was a light fixture with five columns of shelves, each shelf carrying rows of the same leafy plant. Each column was aligned with LED light strings on each side. Between each shelf were spotlights, vertically aligned. At rest, all of these lights emitted a brilliant pink hue, almost as if the audience were looking into a portal that leads to the cover of Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s album art for Multi-Love, but we’ll get into that later.
By the time I reached the show, Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s opener, Makeness, had already begun. A one-man act, Makeness took multiple duties as instrumentalist, programmer, and vocalist for his opening act. His performances more or less involved stacking multiple layers to establish a groove, creating programmable drum patterns on repetitive synth patterns to sonically support his higher register vocals. Makeness produced dance-pop sentiments on stage and maintained a DIY-like attitude with the one-man act setup, complimenting Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s pop-indie-psychedelia hybrid sound and lo-fi background that are well known to the audience.
45 minutes and a couple of soundchecks later, Unknown Mortal Orchestra took the stage, and, as if making a poetic gesture reflecting on the band’s career, started off the show with “Ffunny Ffriends,” the song that started it all. The roars from the audience alone indicated that they knew what was to come. Unknown Mortal Orchestra delivered an outstanding career-spanning set, surprisingly playing a decent distribution of songs from each of their four albums. Some rare surprises were a performance of the self-titled LP’s “Nerve Damage!”, to which Ruban introduced, “This next song is so old, you guys probably won’t even know it.” A significant number of songs from II were performed, including the fan-favorite for singalongs “So Good At Being In Trouble” as well as “Swim and Sleep Like A Shark.” Given the band had just released Sex & Food a month before, it was apparent Unknown Mortal Orchestra would perform almost the entire album live, performing fan favorites like the groovy “Hunnybee” and seamless transitions between “Major League Chemicals” and the fiery “American Guilt.” One particular moment I liked was the fact that they added precise detail to the show by playing a recording (albeit, a distorted, skipped version of a recording) of “A God Called Hubris” while introducing the band’s stage crew before transitioning right into a live rendition of “Major League Chemicals”. Hell, even “Chronos Feasts On His Children” got a performance in the encore!
The setlist is just one aspect of the show; Unknown Mortal Orchestra has proven that they’ve refined the art of the performance. Many of the songs were open to improvisation, from long-running guitar solos at the end of “From the Sun” to even occasional saxophone textures in the more psychedelic renditions. One highlight of the performance was, during the extended solo in the outro of “From The Sun,” Ruban ran off stage, gracing his guitar still plugged into a “wireless” amp. For a good minute, he was off stage while still soloing, until cheers grew louder and louder from the balcony; he had run up to the balcony all while continuing his improvised guitar solo. He teetered over the edge of the balcony, overlooking the general admission crowd who turned around when they realized where he was, as hoards of fans on the balcony roared and took selfies with him at the bottom of the balcony.
The band played every beat and note that has existed in their respective recordings but added even more on top of it in improvisation. Fans of Unknown Mortal Orchestra may also note that seeing a live performance of theirs is much “cleaner” than their recordings; while Ruban stays true in using the appropriate effects on the guitar to replicate the sounds fans have come to love in his records, Ruban doesn’t use any filters on his voice to maintain the lo-fi aesthetic in live shows, leaving his raw voice out in the mix, which can arguably make the show a bit more unique and appealing for fans. Visually, the lighting effects on stage, mentioned earlier, deviated from its constant pink hue at resting state, using rotating beams, vibrant strobe lights, and saturated colors across the spectrum to transform the stage into Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s personal kaleidoscope, perfectly in sync with their music. The sound and visual setup complemented each other in the show’s psychedelic yet laid-back attitude, and the audience of dedicated fans seemed to enjoy every second of it, calling out the next tracks and dancing the night away.
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