Another Portlander in the land of dirty? This seems like a first I think.
The show was good, the crowd, not so good. Since the show was part of the opening night of Music Fest NW there seemed to be an abundance of tourist like people hopping from venue to venue via the power of their red bracelets that gave door entry to venues per the show not being at capacity.
Luckily these people drifted away as soon as the first few songs wrapped. You could see the look and body language of the people expressing a sense of confusion. "Was this it?" "Just five guys on stage?" At one point I overheard, "I thought these guys were supposed to be good."
As it was the first show of the tour, there seemed to a be one or two snags with some lighting cues and timing. It's hard to discern whether this can be attributed to the venue or the crew. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from mogwai live and at points I was reminded of the few times I've seen Spiritualized live and how the music just seems to wash over the audience as a wall of sound. This is not meant to be a negative in regards to the show, just an observation.
Quite a few songs were played off the new album and two in particular I was quite happy to hear live, The Precipice and Scotland's Shame. I've included a photo of the set list my friend took with his i-phone after the show. I approached the sound tech to look at the list. He would not part with it as he needed the notes on it for the next night's show, but also mentioned that they would be changing things up night to night.
set list
Someone in the audience also recorded most of the show and has uploaded the videos to youtube.