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The greatest Mew show ever played was at La Maroquinerie in Paris, 12 November 2009.

There were a collective of us there, and we all felt it. This was true love. We were there, but not entirely present. We could think of nothing else. We knew this was not normal. There were familiar things about it, but this felt different somehow. It was difficult to explain. You had to be there. Writing about it would feel tacky, like an over-simplified primer for others who wouldn’t understand.

15 years later and I, again, test what true love is. 

It’s certainly not about being brasher and bigger, although the orchestra adds plenty.

It’s not in the act of still being there, although I guess that is a pre-requisite so obvious that it hardly needs to be said. Presence in itself is not enough. The symbiosis still has to effortlessly work, and make the witnesses glad they bothered. And this does work. I did bother. And I am glad.

It’s not just balancing familiarity with something new. That being said, these shows (the initial Danish tour in freezing, black-skied, hungover early 2022, and now an updated version where some of us are slightly wiser) do that. They show the increasing use of a back catalogue that hasn’t always had the attention it deserves. There’s a Japanese bonus track in this set. There’s a fully-arranged song from Half The World Is Watching Me. There is a reprise of Reprise (I thought it was Silas The Magic Car, just for a second). There are things I thought I wouldn’t see.

If I had previously considered getting jaded for a while, I have not been jaded since the world got itself back together again. Perhaps that was a cue for everyone to think differently?

Even if coincidental, the band have surprised me when I didn’t necessarily bank on that being on the cards.

And I’m still writing about them. I still want to write about the sounds.

I don’t know, man. What’s my opinion worth? Could I have done more and travelled further? If I had quit after Paris in 2009, would these memories have been elevated because I had never tried to surpass them? Have I been spoiled? How can I possibly be impartial about this? How about you make your own minds up? My words mean nothing.

I am only sure that I do not know for sure what true love is, even after all this time. But I have given my life to this music.

Maybe there will be an obituary where that counts.

Text and photo: Ally Winford

Setlist (London): 156 / Heavenly Jewel Thief / Satellites / Sometimes Life Isn’t Easy / Special / The Zookeeper’s Boy / Saliva / Cartoons and Macramé Wounds / Carry Me To Safety / Reprise / Cross the River On Your Own / Nothingness and No Regrets / Comforting Sounds — Gliding / Am I Wry? No

Setlist (Odense): Heavenly Jewel Thief / 156 / Sometimes Life Isn’t Easy / Special / The Zookeeper’s Boy / Saliva / Cartoons and Macramé Wounds / Satellites / Carry Me To Safety / Reprise / Cross the River On Your Own / Nothingness and No Regrets / Comforting Sounds — Gliding / Am I Wry? No