Mk.gee in Chicago: Gritty Glory
chicago, il- october 3, 2024
Emerging from the shadows, Michael Gordon, known as Mk.gee, is poised to captivate today’s music scene. While his legacy precedes him, he spent the last four years toiling in the background— lining the producer credits of Omar Apollo’s ‘Apollonio’ and Dijon’s ‘Absolutely’, -- going largely unrecognized by the masses. That all changed with his February 2024 release, ‘Two Star & The Dream Police’, his first new release in four years, that catapulted him into the spotlight, with listeners appreciating his unconventional, groggy, DIY approach to the bricks of the project.
Mk.gee's ever-shape-shifting sound leaves the liveliness of his past works behind, but in this 'liminal space' he's carved out, it's just the right amplification to perk ears and turn heads. Hearing the album played in its live form is unorthodox, nonconformist, distinctive. The magic of his shows lies in their unpredictable nature, and it’s clear that the music is meant to be enjoyed and experienced in all of its untamed, uncompromised quality.
Backlit by two shining beams of light, Mk.gee presents himself on the smoke-filled stage of Chicago’s The Vic Theatre, in his signature oversized clothing and shag-style haircut. Joined by two bandmates, Andrew Aged (guitar,bass) and Zach Sekoff (drums), the frontman promptly avoids center-stage, planting himself at the microphone on his right.
Over two hours, his attention splits four ways: alluring the crowd, crooning the mic, executing intense guitar melodies, and manipulating a towering amount of synths, soundboards, and a keyboard that nearly matches his height.
The set opens with “Dream Police,” ‘Two Star’s’ airy closer, a funky and ethereal track with a balance of negative space that rides a driving bassline. He’s one to let a song coast, however, using the low points and empty space of the song to springboard into an extended “How many miles,” adding the first of many virtuosic flairs of guitar solos bending the already distorted notes even further.
Mk.gee transitions into "Candy," a track that flirts with the trappings of pop music but ultimately subverts the genre. On the surface, the song is bright and buoyant, yet there's an underlying subversiveness to "Candy" - an off-kilter quality that sets it apart. It's as if Mk.gee is paying homage to the genre while simultaneously deconstructing it. The result is somewhere between familiar and foreign, and lifts the crowd into a wave of acuteness that builds with the song’s chorus. The over one-thousand-person crowd falls into a call-and-response with the singer shouting, “I cut you slack, you cut me mine,” back at the three-person band.
The stage glows red for “Lonely Fight,” his most recent single since the February release. It’s a low-hanging, out-of-body song with an intimate perspective emphasized within the lyrics, delivered as if it’s being heard through the static of an Alpine radio. Slouchy, hypnotic, he sustains the pensive energy throughout “Little Bit More” and into “cz,” his weary vocals anchoring a trifecta of the set’s calmer portion. He moves into “I Want” and “Rylee & I” pausing to take sips of his drink, and raising it to the crowd, a toast to the communal experience that’s unfolded behind the barricade.
The opening blasts of "DNM" signal the arrival of the set's, high-energy climax. A tightly coiled drum beat kicks the track into overdrive as Mk.gee unleashes a full-throttle vocal performance, his voice soaring with unbridled passion over the song's laser-guided lines. Clocking in at just under two minutes, "DNM" is a dizzying, kaleidoscopic rush, yet Mk.gee and his bandmates stretch it out, locking into a mesmerizing, hypnotic blaze that has the crowd jumping with limitless enthusiasm.
"You know what to do, Zach," Mk.gee calls out to his drummer, prompting the band to launch into the song again. And again. And again. Four times, they rip through the song, the line between artist and audience blurring. The crowd sings the entire third rendition, as he ditches his mic to dart around the stage. The mic doesn’t remain abandoned for long though, he returns to it for spells of piercing howls, in classic Mk.gee fashion. All of the incisive points and complexities that are laced within ‘Two Star’ are reverbed and multiplied by a thousand, as he pushes the already unconventional boundaries of his vocals to the extreme, becoming unrestrained in the form of sharp-pitched screams.
The band indulges the crowd’s fervent cry for one more rendition, and it’s the fifth time around when the show is distilled into its purest form and the cathartic lights dim for the transition to “Breakthespell.” Struck by two beams of light, the theater is bathed in the radiance of a descended disco ball, its polka-dotted lights scatter across the audience and the theatre’s balconies. It’s a visual display that blends with the textures of the song, leaving the crowd transfixed in its dance of light and shadow, and suspending the music’s scaled-back structure.
“Are You Looking Up,” may very well be his strongest guitar performance of the night— though an official ranking would be nearly impossible. Another extended interlude pushes the song’s atmospheric textures, and just like that, the show comes to a close. Mk.gee slips back into the fog that envelopes the stage, the crowd remaining put— they know he’ll be back soon enough.
And return he does—a hum signals his return as he preps for a four-song encore. The powerful entity of "Alesis,” along with reprisals of “Candy” and “DNM,” - songs he jokingly admits “he hasn't played in a long time.” and totaling the “DNM” repetitions to a final count of six. Capping the night with Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On,” not performed as a straightforward rendition; reborn, it’s virtuosic and vocal-less, substituting the iconic lyrics for a scorching guitar melody.
A Mk.gee show is echoed with controlled chaos. He commands the stage with a captivating nonchalance and an understated magnetism. Covered from top to bottom in intricate passages, it’s thrilling and transfixing, yet emotionally resonant. The work of a true technical mastery with a voice that demands to be heard, cutting through noise with a singular, unapologetic vision.
Mk.gee will start his world tour dates at the end of October. Purchase tickets here.
