Micachu and the Shapes via The Walker Art Center

IT WAS ODD NOT TO SEE THE YOUNG band rushing back to the stage after what must have been a solid five minute frenzy of applause and foot stomping. The wood floor at the Cedar Cultural Center in the Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis was taking a fine beating, for sure. The very place that Mica of band Micachu and the Shapes described as, "The most dignified place we've played."

Here it was, roughly 45 minutes after their first song and the audience wanted more of lead singer Micachu, a diminutive blond tough, and her band The Shapes. Of course they did -- the music was jaw dropping, futuristic, and demanded at least a bounce and bob. And when they were finished with their set of what Micachu categorizes as Pop music, I wanted more, too. Even when, at one point of the show when she adjusted her ukulele-thing to be perfectly out of tune. The audience groaned in agony; I felt a bit of excited anticipation. How was this going to work?

Micachu, aka Mica Levi, is in her early twenties and has been writing and playing music since she was four. The band was invited here from London via The Walker Art Center. From the program: "She is classically trained and is best known for experimental music in a variety of genres. Levi was born in Surrey (1987) and raised in Bow, East London...While a student at Guildhall, Levi was commissioned to write an orchestral piece for the London Philharmonic Orchestra which was performed at the Royal Festival Hall in April 2008."

With a background like that, it's no surprised she made a wildly out of tune Uke ultimately sound great. It worked. And it was exciting.

Mica's Shapes clearly have a great time on stage, too. Raisa Kahn plays the Midi keyboard, cowbells, and cymbal. Marc Pell is a drum machine. The both of them also do backup vocals. They're a young lot, like I mentioned, but they are a complex rhythm section to be sure. A few of us in the audience stopped bobbing, hypnotized by the synchronized blast of electronic blips, cow bells, a small zither (zina?) backing up Micachu's modded, heavily strummed over-sized ukulele-looking thing.

And here we were, begging for more of it. Our shouts remained unanswered. Turns out they couldn't decide on what their encore should be. Lucky for us they figured it out eventually. They had to dig way back to some earlier material.

I'm sure they have many more dignified performance venues in their future -- let's hope more in Minnesota, too. In the meanwhile, find their album Jewellery on iTunes. My favorites at the moment are Calculator, Wrong, and Guts.