Live Review: Mogwai at Brooklyn Steel (2025/04/10)

2025 World Tour

Ticket Price: $51.98

Although it was awesome to see the legendary post-rock band, Mogwai, the energy of the show was kind of lacking for a few reasons. Brooklyn Steel is one of my favorite venues and I’ve seen some incredible shows there so I was entering the doors with high expectations. I arrived towards the end of the middle act’s set and then worked my way through the crowd to get a closer position for Mogwai.

The music was incredible and I have nothing negative say about the musicianship. The sound and lighting at Brooklyn Steel are always on point and the band played well, with one tiny nit I have about the drummer’s snare that sound so flat. Otherwise, it was the small details that I noticed that seemed off-putting or unprofessional to me.

For starters, don’t put the guy that looks least interested in the center of the stage. Their songs are mostly instrumental so there isn’t a charismatic person drawing the attention of the crowd, mostly just four dude standing on the stage playing really slow tempo music. When the bass player had an issue with his in-ears, and the tech came on stage to adjust his pack, he noticeably showed all signs of annoyance in the middle of the song. You have to power through those things and keep the energy going. Your body language is part of the performance. He would often have his back to the crowd as well and couldn’t have been more eager to get off the stage at the end of their set.

There was another moment later in the set when the lead guitarist’s strap somehow came undone so he knelt down to keep playing. However, something then happened with his connection and his feed died. The tech came out to help get things sorted and they were having a little shouting match trying to figure it out. This is all happening while the rest of the band continued to play the song. It was almost comical and made me wonder if this isn’t a normal occurrence for them, hence why they were so visibly frustrated. Either way, it detracted from the overall performance for me and helped me better appreciate all of those musicians that make it look like nothing ever happened.

They also had almost no crowd interaction other than telling us they were from Scotland and a “Thank you so much” after each song. Decent show but not as mind-blowing as some of the people around me seemed to convey.

Cheers and keep rocking!