Gov Ball Day 1: Mk.Gee is a Multidimensional Generational Talent

Friday evening, the Gov Ball Main Stage was stripped down following the T-Pain set, now graced solely by a steadily chugging fog machine. The screens on either side of the stage were predominantly black, save for a blue-tinted split panel in the middle that showed the supporting band from two different angles, like a widescreen VCR played on a fullscreen TV. Suddenly, an explosive wall of sound hurtled out from the speakers; it was by far the loudest set of the day, forcing me to reckon with the utility of earplugs. The sound was unsurprisingly experimental, a collage of ambient synths, scratching vinyl, and retro arcade noises like laser beams shooting out into space. Amid this disorienting mix, Mk.Gee nonchalantly strolled onto the stage and picked up his guitar; several audience members cried out with adoration, while others likely did not notice or mistook him for another backing musician. The fog machine increased its outpour, creating a wall of fog to obscure our performer after a mere glimpse and further disorient the audience, a sort of rite-of-passage for the odyssey we would embark on. As the sound faded out, Mk.Gee played the funky opening riff of his 2024 single ROCKMAN. As the fog cleared away, a portal opened into Mk.Gee’s musical world, columns of light falling from the ceiling as the musician stood with his feet spread in front of the microphone. His voice was both pleading and freewheeling, lines and verses flowing seamlessly into each other until he punctuated “but you started a war” with a powerful edge of raw emotionality. 

Mk.Gee by @emilioherce

The musician went straight into Dream Police next, his fingers gliding over his guitar strings as the crowd sang gently along to his subdued vocals, “I’m taking all my love.” Mk.Gee barely moved position throughout the performance, but this lack of performative panache belied a true focus on craft and ceded to his instrumental showmanship on both guitar and keys. He took a brief break from the music to address the crowd with a muted, slurred “How we feelin’?” before launching into How Many Miles, another track from his most recent album Two Star & The Dream Police. He confidently sang the stuttering intro, “If you got, if you got, if you got,” his voice clear and bright for all its grooves and hideaways. As the final reverberating notes rang out, he told the crowd, “We’re happy to be here. Thank you guys for having us.” The cheering audience was greeted with another eruption of sound, this time a melody of crackling fireworks, crickets, a pulsing ringing, airhorns, and finally a sample of Candy by Cameo which gave way to Candy by Mk.Gee as the musician yelped into the microphone. The pop hooks of the song--which stands out as a highlight of the album and set--called attention to the pop timber of his voice, which he enriches with his imaginative cross-genre application. As Mk.Gee’s indie-pop vocals rang out from his same position (feet planted firmly apart) on the stage, his videographer captured the underside of the performance; Mk.Gee’s shadowy silhouette was broadcast on the stage screens, fog obscuring the glimpses of the sprawling audience beyond. Clad in black, with his supporting guitar and percussion dressed the same, the minimalist aesthetic of the musicians cleared the way for sonic exploration while the videographer embarked on visual experimentation. 

Of course, Mk.Gee can’t limit himself to one form of expression; while the support guitarist shredded out a rapid-paced solo at the peak of Candy, Mk.Gee took up the hulking video camera, raising it high above his head and turning it toward the crowd before resetting its sights on the musicians as he stumbled across the stage. The camera was the main aesthetic vehicle of the concert, its low-fi tech signaling a resistance to technological progress and a nostalgia for prior times, most directly a late 90s to early aughts skater culture. The videographer kept the camera low as he glided around the performance, producing prowling angles that were slightly unsettling, but befitting the subject; Mk.Gee himself appeared like an apparition, tall and imposing and shrouded in fog. His specter-like appearance is fitting given his many comparisons to Prince and other great innovative rockers of yore (I think of him as if Prince grew up in the era of slowed and reverbed YouTube edits). He seems to have come from another time, or from outside of time, to deliver a new age of guitar music. He is both genre- and era-defying, the set containing notable traces of the 70s, 80s, 2010s, and beyond. As he slowed it down for his next track, I Want, the slippage of time deepened as his smooth voice became reflective, accessing the sense of an oft-considered but never-recaptured memory. Mk.Gee’s voice is soft and plaintive yet soaring, and his yearning is nearly palpable, making his songs truly haunting. 

Mk.Gee took a moment to introduce his supporting musicians, on percussion and guitar, while sipping his beer. He pounded on the keys that were set up to his side to show off his multi-instrumental talents, though his guitar stayed strapped securely on him throughout the performance like a piece of armor. Mk.Gee and his guitar tackled You Got It next, his voice and technique irresistibly silky. Next up was a deconstructed version of New Low, finely dissected and pieced together so as to punctuate each aspect of its sonic landscape, a richly immersive experience. DNM was similarly composed, with generously deployed laser sound effects. Mk.Gee seemed to gain significant verve for the energetic Alesis, stomping his foot and howling the choral “Why me?” He expected his energy to be returned, raising his outstretched arms to signal for more applause alongside the comment, “It’s New York, it’s summer.” During a synth-heavy musical interlude that began with the noise of sloshing water, as Mk.Gee gently strummed his guitar, the rear stage light and fog machine interacted in perfect harmony to open up a swirling vortex. The circulating fog gave the impression of a portal which Mk.Gee was at once borne out of and had conjured for his impending exit. Perhaps this supernatural force emboldened him, as the final few songs were his most energetic; he yelped “New York! Yeah!” before hurling into Are You Looking Up. A final discordant sonic medley rang out, one of many screeching, thumping transitions between songs that felt like feedback from another dimension, the one to which our performer would soon return. At this point, the lead-in seemed like a secret code to decipher given Mk.Gee’s exhaustively strategic song mixing.

For his final song, Mk.Gee reprised ROCKMAN, as though part of a ritual that allowed him to arrive upon and exit the stage. The overall performance was an intimate and enlightening view into his musical process, decidedly bedroom pop and high concept at once. When his set time had elapsed, Mk.Gee strolled offstage as nonchalantly as he arrived, an interdimensional being who is not from here, but is nonplussed to find himself among us mortals.

Brandi Martin

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Emilio Herce

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