MONO Live @Melkweg, 12.11.2025

martin

21/11/2025

Amsterdam, November 2025, 7 pm. At this time of year, the night has already claimed the day. Reflections of streetlights shimmer on the canals of Amsterdam’s beautiful city center as I make my way to see the Japanese instrumental rock band MONO. An evening full of emotions.

MONO blend elements of contemporary classical music with rock that moves between ambient stillness and eruptive noise. Tonight, they perform at the Melkweg as part of their Oath European Tour 2025. No support act is announced, which feels a bit unusual. The last time I saw MONO was in 2016, co-headlining with French blackgaze pioneers Alcest and supported by Syndrome, the solo project of Amenra’s Mathieu Vandekerckhove. That show, in a much smaller venue, was magical.

The Melkweg, just around the corner from the Leidseplein and on the edge of the Centraal District, carries more than fifty years of cinema, theatre, art exhibitions, and live music. I arrive early and find “The Max,” the venue’s largest hall, still quite empty. Its clean, modern architecture opens around a lowered main floor, accessible by steps. Over time the room fills up. Exactly at 8 pm the background music fades. Lights out. The band walks on.

The Show

Red light washes the stage as the set opens with “Run On” from Oath. Its calm beginning and slowly expanding layers of melody make it a fitting choice to start a MONO concert in 2025. The tension builds as both guitars add waves of distortion until the drums and bass release it all into a simple but incredibly effective groove. The crowd reacts instantly. An excellent start.

Silence and blue light. A new riff emerges. One that, for reasons I can’t quite explain, briefly reminds me of Mark Knopfler at this moment. “We All Shine On”, the second-to-last track on Oath, has nothing to do with Dire Straits, of course. Its emotional melodies bring a sense of optimism, and the band’s performance is flawless. At this point, three things are already clear:

The sound engineer knows exactly what they’re doing.
The lighting, though minimalistic, is precise and thoughtfully executed.
This is going to be a great evening.

Yellow light floods the stage as the drone intro of “Innocence” begins. The track from Pilgrimage of the Soul (2021) grows into the night’s first full noise outburst.

With “Sorrow”, they revisit Nowhere Now Here (2019). It’s not among my personal favorites, but once again the performance, sound, and lighting are impeccable. So far, Tamaki Yuasa (Bass), Dahm Cipolla (Drums), Yoda Suematsu (Guitar) and Takaakira ‘Taka’ Goto (Guitar) are creating an evening just as magical as the one almost ten years ago.

Then comes the first massive highlight of the night: “Recoil, Ignite.” MONO in full force. The crowd loses it. One of the band’s heaviest pieces still hits me with that feeling of staring into the abyss of melancholy, anxiety, and depression. Gloomy, plaintive, and with little optimism the opener of Ray of Darkness (2014) is timeless.

Afterwards, we’re given a moment to breathe with “Hear the Wind Sing” from Oath, which serves as a gorgeous and perfectly placed interlude. Jeremy deVine of Temporary Residence Limited once said:

„I am almost certain the next time I see them [playing live] is probably as good as the time I saw them in 2004. There are very few bands you can say that about.„
MONO – Journey Through Hell

Nothing to add here.

What follows is pure mastery. The final stretch consists of “Ashes in the Snow”, “Time Goes By” and, as an encore, “Com(?)”. For me that translates to more than thirty minutes of nearly uninterrupted goosebumps. It all ends in silenced and I mean that literally. After the final note of “Com(?)” fades, there is no immediate applause. Instead, the roughly 1,200 attendees seem to collectively need a moment to grasp the sheer beauty of a performance that was fragile and calm, yet powerful and overwhelming.

Taka steps up to the microphone, offers a simple, heartfelt “Thank you so much” and then the hall erupts.