photos and words by Molly Misek
With a band named after the Portguese word for “miracles” and album titles like Glowing Mouth and Violent Light, Milagres exudes the bright, the heavenly, the euphoric through their music.
At their show at Vega on Tuesday, the Brooklyn-based rock band played to a modest crowd, bringing with them a simultaneously focused and faraway sound, heavy with rolling riffs and keyboard melodies in songs like “Terrifying Sea.” Frontman Kyle Wilson’s whispery falsetto vocals added to the synthetic currents of the music, creating the audible equivalent of basking in a spectrum of light.
Milagres takes the beachy sound so many bands of its chill rock genre fall into and funnels it into an explorative experience. “Jeweled Cave,” a standout of the night, sounded like a lovechild of The Strokes and Duran Duran, while funky tracks like “Urban Eunuchs” revealed the band’s playful, sensual side.
Spock Nixon opened the night, a self-proclaimed “high school band” who say they’re inspired by concept-driven bands such as Fleet Foxes and Arcade Fire. Playing songs about cigarettes and religion, the band onstage was far beyond high school, both in sound and lyrics.
Throughout their performance, the guys of Spock Nixon were earnest and artful with a sort of planned naivety: they explained the origin of each song, and at one point they all awkwardly waited for a fellow band member to tune his guitar, attempting a joke or two before launching back into another ballad like “Playing God.” Their low-key, refined sound — along with their classy clothing coordination — made for a compelling set.
See more photos from the night below:
Milagres
Spock Nixon
Molly Misek is a multimedia intern at Hear Nebraska. She definitely spilled Kyle Wilson's beer after this show, and she still feels bad about it. Reach her at mollym@hearnebraska.org.