Phoenix Setlist
Read More
|
Probably no better place for a French indie pop band Phoenix from Versailles to kick off their North American tour than at a place called the Palace Theatre. Although recently renovated, the venue may hold an old world appeal to a band that once filmed one long tracking shot for “Ti Amo” at Teatro Bibiena, in Mantova, Italy.
Porches opened the evening with a solid set with songs like “Swarovski”, “I Miss That” and “Underwater”. Trimmed down to three members, the songs were short and on point with Aaron Maine and Dan English on guitar and Noah Hecth on drums. All in on guitars, the band at times had a Pixies vibe. Also Hecth’s cymbals seemed to float above the rest of the set giving a new meaning to the musical term “hi-hat”.
Based out of New York, Maine said they were excited to be back on the road and opening for Phoenix, saying the band left New York on Sunday just to make it to the first show for the tour in St. Paul, MN.
Phoenix traveled a little further and they wasted no time by opening with “Listzomania”, which seemed a brave choice. For where do you go after playing your most well known song?
It worked, for the band electrified the audience from the start and kept them engaged with songs like “Lasso” and “Long Distance Call”. They also played “Tonight” and “Alpha Zulu” from an upcoming (untitled) album.
If you have the time, check out their music video to “Alpha Zulu”. It’s a clever collection of famous paintings brought to life through CGI as historical figures like Abraham Lincoln and Jean-Paul Marat sing the lyrics to a very catchy song. Band favorite Franz Liszt makes an appearance. And it’s not every day you get to see the original selfie taker, Rembrandt, shout out lyrics like: “Woo ha! Singing Hallelujah.”
The band came to play. They were tight, in sync and showed no signs of rust. The whole evening they kept the crowd moving with guitar licks and synth grooves.
The backdrop was also impressive. Not just a giant screen but a collection of ringed mirrors around a main one to create the perception of three dimensions. There were forests and the Versailles Hall of Mirrors. The highlight was “Love Like a Sunset Parts I and II” when a camera pulls away from a sleeping man, resting comfortably in a park until the camera is 100 hundred light years away (pretty far). Then the camera begins to zoom back to the subject’s hand where the measurements of angstroms are used (pretty tiny).
The lead singer, Thomas Mars, bounced around the stage the whole evening, grabbing binoculars, singing to a masked stranger a la Antonio Salieri in the movie Amadeus, and even waded into the crowd to personally thank individuals for coming to the show. And for the encore he sat on a harpsichord and sang “Telefono”. It was at that point a few females around me openly talked about kicking their husbands/boyfriends to the curb if there was a chance that Mars was available after the show.
Phoenix at Palace Theatre, St Paul (06 Sep 2022) |
dave ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com |
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.