MisterWives perform at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco on Nov. 23, 2021. Gary Chancer/STAFF.

SAN FRANCISCO — New York pop band MisterWives took to the stage on Tuesday night for The Resilient Little Tour at the Regency Ballroom. And what a stage it was; covered in flowering vines, flowers and potted plants that were strewn about to create a wild look. A technicolor projector screen—apparently made by bassist William Hehir—sat in the back.

MisterWives’ Mandy Lee.

Singer Mandy Lee wore a glittery turquoise outfit paired with glitter hair clips, while the rest of the band, which includes drummer Etienne Bowler, guitarist Marc Campbell and saxophonist Mike Murphy, wore variations of a pale pink suit.

Although the vibe screamed flower power, clearly all was not butterflies and rainbows. It’s no secret that Lee and Bowler recently split after almost 10 years together, and Lee gave the audience a glimpse of their soul-baring journey to finally heal from the pain, leading to the birth of their third album, Superbloom.

The majority of the songs were from Superbloom and they were performed mostly in order, beginning with album opener “the end,” followed by “ghost.” With the danceable beats and Lee’s joyful and infectious energy, it was easy to overlook the heavy lyrics about the end of a relationship. Lee skipped from one side of the stage to the other, high-kicking and spinning in circles during “whywhywhy.” She wasn’t the only star of the show though, as Mike Murphy also had a couple impressive saxophone solos during “rock bottom” and “love me true.”

MisterWives’ Etienne Bowler.

At one point Lee, Hehir and Campbell even danced in sync while leaning back during “coming up for air.” Lee joked after the song that doing moves like that hurts nowadays and that she now has to wear shoe inserts when she performs.

Their performance of “valentine’s day” and “over the rainbow” perhaps most starkly contrasted with the fun and floral theme of the rest of the show, with Lee sitting down to sing “valentine’s day” (the song with lyrics most specific to her and Bowler’s breakup) and with ominous thunder and lightning and deep red hues in the background of the anger-riddled “over the rainbow.” However, the mood later lifted as they switched to softer lighting like blue and green (“it’s my turn”), yellow (“find my way home”), blue and purple (“running in place”) and pink (“love me true”).

It was clear that the band has missed being on stage, as the members talked about how the past year has been a struggle, how COVID-19 said, “Bitches, hold my beer,” how MisterWives couldn’t play a show for two years, and how they stayed resilient through it all and documented it through their music.

“Ignore noise and stress from the outside world” and enjoy the show was the message of the night.

MisterWives’ William Hehir.

MisterWives concluded their main set with “Coloring Outside the Lines” from their second album, Connect the Dots, and their 2015 hit “Reflections” to which Lee did a hair flip finale to the crowd’s approval. Afterward, she changed outfits into a flower dress for an encore of “SUPERBLOOM” and the title track from Our Own House, the band’s debut album. During the final song, Hehir, Campbell and Murphy all got up onto a platform while playing their instruments. They all lied down on the stage halfway through and just when the crowd thought that was the end, jumped up again and kept going. Lee expressed gratitude for being able to take such a vulnerable part of her life and turn it into something beautiful.

TikTok-famous singer-songwriter Frances Forever (Frances Garrett), opened the show with “depression.” They sang and played keyboard while on songs “fuck u,” “Frankenstein Wannabe” and viral hit “space girl.” During one memorable moment, one of their backup guitarists, dressed in an astronaut-type suit, started jumping around the stage to hype up the crowd while Frances Forever sang “treehouse.” They and their band ended the set with “Certified Fool.”

The original version of this story identified Jesse Blum as having performed with MisterWives. He did not.