Miki Fiki Brings The ‘Dumb Baby Tour’ To Cambridge With A Sold Out Show At Cantab Lounge

Mar 17

Photos & words by Mikey Gale (@gale_pictures)

Hot off the release of his first studio album Dumb Baby, Nashville artist Miki Fiki hit the road to celebrate. Marking the halfway point of this tour was a very special night at the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Only playing the Boston area twice prior, Miki Fiki was expecting a nice, mellow crowd but was instead greeted by a sold out show, in the same room that they only sold half the year prior.

Joining Miki Fiki at Cantab Lounge on March 14th, was Boston locals Hill House; a ten piece funk-pop band that could not all fit on the stage. Hill House got the crowd dancing and grooving, with a leading rhythm section and powerful vocals from front woman, Dilce Elisa. While Hill House is a newer band to the scene, with only a handful of songs released (don’t worry, there is more being worked on to come soon), they filled out their set with some electrifyingly funky covers of “Waves” by Melt, “Rather Be” by Clean Bandit, “Good Luck, Babe!” By Chappell Roan, and “It’s Raining Men” by The Weather Girls.

As Hill House finished up, the crowd buzzed with excitement, as the much smaller four piece band that makes up Miki Fiki took the stage. Miki Fiki kicked off the set with “Brown Bangs”, a fun poppy track about an innocent crush, as well as the first single off the new album. While the crowd was loud and talkative as Miki Fiki took the stage, more and more fell in as they soaked in the music.

The unique aspect about Miki Fiki’s music is that there is no guitar in the band or on his albums, instead relying on frontman Ted Hartog’s keys and vocals to lead songs. Backing him up on stage (and I’m also assuming in life) is Jacob Haymans on trumpet and keys, Wes Rodberg on drums, and Sam Rodberg on Bass. This small and tight knit stage set up propels the music forward in a rhythmic groove that you can’t help but dance to. Most bands rely on guitar to lead, but often you lose other aspects of the band in the guitar. That was not a problem at Miki Fiki’s show, you could hear each individual part of the song clearly, and could tell how it all worked together to create each beautiful song.

While this tour was to share the new album with fans, Miki Fiki did not shy away from their roots, playing older songs like “Chaos”, “Hemingway”, and “Scrub” (the first song of theirs that I ever heard that made me a fan in the first place). Mixing the old with favorites off the new album like “Made A Friend”, “Theo”, and “Look At Me”— Miki Fiki created a special and intimate night celebrating their music with fans.