[ATTENDED: September 8, 2023] Phoenix
Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is a fantastic album–wonderful French synth pop with insanely catchy choruses.
When they were announced as co-headliner with Beck, I was pretty excited to check them out. I didn’t know anything about their live show, but I figured I’d know a bunch of songs.
We arrived at the Mann Center and got to our seats about three minutes before Phoenix came on. And what timing because they opened with the amazingly catchy “Lisztomania” which got everyone on their feet and singing along. This pairing seemed to work really well as it felt like people were there for both bands and not just one or the other.
The stage was set up like a frame. And as soon as the song kicked in, the frame was revealed to be a digital screen. And Phoenix had a ton of fun with this setup. Each song had a video or a scene behind it. And most of them looked completely realistic.
So the band was playing in an opulent room, or on a classical ruin or a deserted wasteland. Or, there were optical illusions floating around behind them. It was amazing. And it looked incredible.
I was also surprised at how many songs I didn’t know. I just assumed it would be hit after hit. And maybe it was an I just don’t know the hits. But they played three songs from their debut album United which I had never heard of.
The band was set up so that on the ground level there were four of them: Thomas Mars – lead vocals ; Deck d’Arcy – bass, keyboards ; Laurent Brancowitz – lead guitar, keyboards ; Christian Mazzalai – guitar. Granted I’m not sure who was who–I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a picture of them before. On the upper level were the two touring musicians: Robin Coudert – keyboards, percussion ; Thomas Hedlund – drums. These two were amazing to watch, especially Hedlund who was an absolute maniac on the drums. In fact, I tend to think of Phoenix’s music as being not all that interesting drumwise–it’s pretty standard beat-keeping for the drums. But Hedlund was great–fills, standing up and crashing the drums. And when Coudert played snare along with him it was so loud!
They did an amazing job of mixing up the setlist. With several songs from Wolfgang up front including in a mashup with a United song, Too Young/Girlfriend.
Phoenix has a new album out with some great songs on it, and they waited before playing them. It took five songs to bust out “Alpha Zulu” Ooh ha, saying Hallelujah! Followed soon after by “After Midnight.” Then they moved on to “Armistice” (yet another song from Wolfgang). The slow repetitive middle was a perfect lead in to the following song which I understand is a Phoenix live favorite
It is known as “Sunskrupt” and it’s a mashup of “Love Like a Sunset” from WAP and “Bankrupt” from Bankrupt. The video behind them was incredible. It started with a man lying on a grassy spot. The camera then zoomed out and the distance was listed on the side (10,000 meters, 100,000 meters). It continued to pull back, into outer space, through the milky way to over a million light years away. The the song hit a climax and the song picked up with the camera zooming back in, all the way to the man again and then closer and closer–.o1 millimeter down to millionths of an ångstrom, where I’m assuming we could see a red blood cell? It was amazing.
Someone had been holding up a sign for “Funky Squaredance,” an early song that I didn’t know. Well, they played a medley of that with another early song. On stage came a personification of death who Mars sang to. When the song ended, death was holding his head! Crazy
They played the super catchy “Tonight” from the new album and then one more new song before playing another medley from Bankrupt and then getting the entire crowd psyched for a terrific sing along of “1901.”
It was fantastic.
And just when we thought the show was over, the band started playing an instrumental (Identical) and Thomas Mars headed out to the audience. I assumed he would stop before he got to us, but he climbed over the seat back, literally right next to my wife (we were both too surprised to get any good pictures). Then he climbed all the way to the back of the seated area and walked around up there until he came back down the other side and then climbed on some people’s shoulders in the main front area.
What a show. I can’t imagine the stops they pull out of they are the headliners!
- Lisztomania ψ
- Entertainment $
- Lasso ψ
- Too Young µ / Girlfriend ψ
- Alpha Zulu @
- Ti Amo ♥
- After Midnight @
- Armistice ψ
- Sunskrupt! **
- If I Ever Feel Better µ / Funky Squaredance µ
- Tonight @
- Winter Solstice @
- Rome ψ
- Trying to Be Cool $ /Drakkar Noir $
- 1901 ψ
- Identical (reprise) @
ψ Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (2009)
µ United (2004)
@ Alpha Zulu (2022)
$ Bankrupt! (2013)
♥ Ti Amo (2017)
** Mashup of “Bankrupt” and “Love Like a Sunset”
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