Mew playing their last gig on their Farewell Tour in Camden, London.

LIVE REVIEW | MEW — ROUNDHOUSE | 5 FEB

I first saw Mew exactly 20 years ago at Shepherd’s Bush Empire. From that moment, they instantly took a place in my heart. To me they were (and always will be) the Danish equivalent to The Smashing Pumpkins: lush, melancholic, expansive, and just delightfully strange in all the right ways.

And now, here we were, in a sold-out Roundhouse, witnessing Jonas Bjerre’s last show with the band. It felt impossibly distant and yet strangely inevitable. Time’s strange like that: as it always does, it seemed like no time at all had passed, and yet here we were closing the book on a 30-year chapter.

This show wasn’t a celebration in the high-energy festival sense; it felt somber, reflective, and beautifully fitting for a farewell tour. The mood in the room was reverent and full of shared memory. Their fans had grown up with these songs, and were older and gathered once more for one last communion of sound and emotion.

One standout moment for me was hearing “I Should Have Been A Tsin-Tsi (For You)” live, which was their very first single, released back in March 1997. To experience it knowing it was the last time was almost too much to take in.

Setlist:

1. Reprise

2. Satellites

3. Special

4. The Zookeeper’s Boy

5. Circuitry Of The Wolf

6. Chinaberry Tree

7. Then I Run

8. Gliding

9. Ay Ay Ay

10. Snow Brigade

11. Symmetry

12. 156

13. Apocalypso

14. Saviours Of Jazz Ballet

15. She Spider

16. Rows

Encore:

17. Introducing Palace Players

18. I Should Have Been A Tsin-Tsi (For You)

19. Am I Wry? No

20. Comforting Sounds

The setlist was a gorgeous cross-section of their catalogue with deep cuts, sprawling atmospherics, and fan favourites that spanned their entire career. It was a retrospective journey through every era of the band’s evolution. Hearing those songs back-to-back felt like flipping through a cherished photo album.

The show was structured with great care. Beginning with the wistful mood of Reprise and building through emotional peaks like Snow Brigade, Symmetry, and 156, before ending with the catharsis of Comforting Sounds. It was like the band knew exactly how to take us through every feeling we’d ever had with them: introspection, joy, loss, and graceful closure.

And oh, those final moments, with the lights low and the crowd gently singing along, felt like communion. You could see it in the band’s faces too: a deep, unguarded connection with everyone who had stood with them over the years. Some hugs onstage, some quiet smiles; it was heartfelt without theatrics, understated yet powerful.

I left feeling grateful for the music and the memories. It was exactly what a farewell from Mew should be.

— Frenger forever. 💫