More people trickled in while the band played, and close to 50 people stood around the stage when local band The Tourniquets started their set.
The room was nearly full by the time Brooklyn, New York, singer-songwriter Mitski and her two bandmates began. The blue light that washed the stage while Mitski ran through a vocal warmup transformed the bright pink bass guitar hanging from her shoulder into a fluorescent pink beacon.
Mitski stopped at the Blockhouse on Friday to play the second-to-last show of her solo tour before heading out on the road again with the Screaming Females.
After opening her set with the fast-paced song “Townie” from her latest album, “Bury Me at Make Out Creek,” Mitski transitioned into the more subdued song “First Love / Late Spring” from the album.
IU student Hannah Hadley said she loved that Mitski’s songs “definitely have a punk side, but they also stretch and are ethereal.”
Mitski mostly stuck to playing songs from her last album, but she did include two songs from her 2013 album, “Retired from Sad, New Career in Business,” as well as an unreleased, punk rock-influenced song in which she sang that her “body’s made up of crushed little stars.”
The singer-songwriter dedicated her song “I Don’t Smoke” to all of the girls at the show “who don’t love themselves yet.”
As her guitarist and drummer left the stage for the last song, “Class of 2013,” Mitski reminded the crowd who she was.
“So yes, my name’s Mitski,” she said.
With her bass guitar set aside and just the microphone in her hand, Mitski walked to where her guitarist had set her guitar on its stand. She seemed to haphazardly strum the guitar occasionally as she sang, and when her voice rose to a climax, she lifted the guitar to her face with the microphone stuck between.
When Mitski’s voice trailed off and the guitar was back in its place on the floor, her bandmates rejoined her onstage. They began to pack up their instruments.
Mitski realized after a few minutes that the crowd had hardly moved from its place after the last song ended. She flashed a smile, quickly waved goodbye and turned back to finish packing up.
Finally, the crowd moved.
IU student Mike Higgins said he thought the show was great, and he was surprised by the way Mitski sounded.
“She played a really different style than I’ve ever heard before,” he said.
