Mitski Asks Fans to Put Their Phones Away During Her Upcoming Shows
If you have a ticket for one of Mitski’s upcoming concerts, the musician has a simple request: Enjoy the show without your cell phone. In a statement on Twitter, Mitski encouraged her fans to embrace the present moment rather than spend the entire evening filming her.
“I wanted to speak with you about phones at shows,” she wrote. “They’re part of our reality, I have mine on me all the time, and I’m not against taking photos at shows (though please no flash lol). But sometimes when I see people filming entire songs or whole sets, it makes me feel as though we are not here together. This goes for both when I’m on stage, and when I’m an audience member at shows.”
She explained that makes for a better experience all around when people don’t have their phones out. “I love shows for the feeling of connection, of sharing a dream, and remembering that we have a brief miraculous moment of being alive at the same time, before we part ways,” she continued. “I feel I’m part of something bigger. When I’m on stage and look to you but you are gazing into a screen, it makes me feel as though those of us on stage are being taken from and consumed as content, instead of getting to share a moment with you.”
The musician acknowledged that fans can make their own decisions and she hopes they will enjoy the concerts as they like. “I don’t want to be greedy, I’m fortunate to get to play,” she added. “Just putting out there that sometimes, if we’re lucky, we can experience magic at a show. But only if we’re there to catch it.”
Mitski’s most recent album, Laurel Hell, arrived earlier this month. “This album went through so many iterations,” she said in a recent interview with Rolling Stone. “This album has been a punk record at some point, and a country record. Then, after a while, it was like, ‘I need to dance.’ Even though the lyrics might be depressing, I need something peppy to get me through this.”
The musician’s sold-out tour kicked off Feb. 17. The upcoming dates include stops in New York City, Seattle, and Denver. In April and May, Mitski will head to the U.K. and Europe, with additional shows scheduled in the U.K. in June. She will appear as part of the lineup of Lollapalooza Stockholm and Primavera Sound LA.
