Phoenix @ DAR Constitution Hall 4/26/10
DAR has a tendency to suck the life out of a live performance. It is a beautiful venue, but because of its size , “sit down” atmosphere and DC attitude it oftentimes makes a great performance somewhat mediocre. When I say DC attitude I mean that when you looked around the hall last Monday night you saw people standing still, not even bobbing their heads. This is pretty tough to do since Phoenix makes me want to dance instinctually.
Phoenix comes out and sounds amazing, they are such a lovable band. Not pompous, not trying too hard, but still one of the tightest bands out there today. They are having fun on stage, impeccable musicianship. Halfway through the third song they announce that they have a backup drummer. This amazes me because he kicks as, and I wonder how you find a backup drummer that good, that fast, that knows all your songs. Was this some prodigy drummer waiting in the wings as the Phoenix waterboy who just happened to step up? We’ll never know.
They play through their songs with great enthusiasm, sounding perfect, but the show really didn’t “show-up” until the second half. Singer Thomas Mars started climbing up onto the speakers making his way into the orchestra as far as the mic cord coul reach. You got the feeling that they were feeling a little disconnected as well, just as we were sitting way back in the upper left orchestra. Although not a terrible place to get the full scope of a show. Mars pushedthe performance as much as he could. They changed things up by coming out after a break playing “Everything is Everything” with just Mars and the guitarist.
The show had a nice build after the second half and it ended ona n amazing note. Phoenix, of course, closed with 1901, which still hasn’t gotten old for me. Mars started out on stage, then the song died as the guitarist exchanged some licks. During this the singer, unbeknownst to me, made his way out to the middle of the venue. When “1901″ started up again, a spotlight shone into the middle of the venue where Mars was being lifted up by the crowd. He eventually made his way back to the stage and proceeded to invite the crowd on stage. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this happen at DAR, it was a sea of people with a hump at the end where the stage was. There must have been 150 people up there. It was truly a unique site for the venue(you can see a video of it here)
Overall is was an enjoyable night, albeit a bit short (the show only went to 10:30). If you haven’t seen Phoenix yet then I highly recommend you do, you will be impressed.. just try to see them at a more intimate venue. The spontaneous Phoenix dance party me and my friends had till 4am the week before was a good warm-up for it as well.
Tags: Uncategorized, phoenix
