10:30pm, Friday 27th August 2010 is a date and time I’m unlikely to forget in a hurry. That was the day I went to Reading Festival for the first time (I was a late festival bloomer—what can I say?) Fresh from losing my wellies in a mud-bath mosh-pit during Queens of the Stone Age, I headed over to the NME stage to catch the act that made me want to go to the festival in the first place… Phoenix.
Their set at Reading was possibly the best and worst experience I’ve had at a festival rolled up in to one. ‘Lisztomania’ opened the set and I went mental, along with the rest of the crowd, finally glad after 6 years of following Phoenix I was able to finally go and see them and hear them live. And then I realised with horror that I was going to miss the last train home and so ended up having to leave Phoenix after five minutes of their set and I was, no word of a lie, devastated.
This potentially would explain why, stood outside of Shepherd’s Bush Empire, I was the giddiest I had been for a gig in months. 9 years of waiting had lead me to this show and so, needless to say, anticipation was at an all time high.
An unfortunately lacklustre set from The History of Apple Pie opened proceedings and dampened spirits simultaneously. As previously noted when 7Bit last caught them, Stephanie Min’s vocals were completely absent—lost amongst the deluge of instruments. Even stood at the front, I had to strain to hear them, so I can only imagine what people further back heard (or not, as the case may be). Musically things weren’t much better, but that can be pinned more on technical difficulties than THOAP themselves. All in all a set where they could’ve shone and recruited some more fans, they failed to make any lasting impression—even to someone familiar with them.
Phoenix, however, proved to be worth the wait. Bounding onto the stage with a frankly scary amount of energy for a band that were in LA only 24 hours prior, they immediately barrelled into latest single ‘Entertainment’. This, of course, was met by equal enthusiasm and energy from the crowd, reacting as if it were an old favourite—opposed to something barely two months old. However it was ‘Lasso’ from Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix that offered the audience their first glimpse of the unstoppable Parisian force. Executed with finesse and precision, each member of the band looked genuinely in their element, although none moreso than tour drummer Thomas Hedlund who hammered his kit with such ferocity that he actually managed to kill the already technologically fragile equipment.
The crowd however remained completely oblivious to this fact as the band handled the hiccup with a staggering amount of composure. Thomas Mars ensured all attention was fixated on him as he remarked how “this is our first show in England for a very long time…” before taking to sitting on the barrier and serenading the crowd with a rendition of Air’s ‘Playground Love’ and a stripped back version of ‘Countdown’. It was this stripped-back version of ‘Countdown’ that showed the staggering musical versatility of Phoenix who, at the drop of a hat, pulled out a truly spine-tingling acoustic moment that was delicate and intimate, especially for those of us lucky enough to be right by Mars for the occasion.
It was little doubt then that once the drums were back in working order, ‘Lisztomania’ was a force to be reckoned with. Sharp and vibrant, it soared with an incredible ease—assisted by the anthemic chorus that did, indeed, inspire the anthemic level of singing from the crowd.
It was another testament to Phoenix that during a 10 minute long musical indulgence they were able to keep the audience hanging on to every note as both ‘Love Like a Sunset’ and ‘Bankrupt!’ coalesced into one to become ‘Sunskrupt!’—which turned into a beast in its own right. Allowing full appreciation of Phoenix’s ear for melody and attention to detail—it allowed each member of the band to shine both independently and together, allowing true appreciation of their musical prowess. Visually the audience were treated to a rather simplistic, yet highly effective, light show that perfectly complemented the atmosphere on the stage whilst proving that sometimes simplistic visuals are the way forward.
Even though the show marked the release of their fifth studio album, there was still an extremely diverse setlist—airing almost all of Wolfgang… alongside a welcome appearance from some material from earlier albums including the surprising inclusion of ‘Too Young’; which, as a long standing Phoenix fan, was an extremely exciting moment. Although it is obvious on record that it comes from a far less experienced band; live there was no such evidence—glimmering with the same refined shine that Phoenix retained throughout their set. And the seamless transition from ‘Too Young’ into ‘Girlfriend’ has to be applauded both for the craftsmanship it displayed as well as the evidence that although Phoenix have grown as a band, their sound is in essence the same.
The same seamless transition/mash-up approach was applied to showcasing the new material from Bankrupt! ‘Trying to be Cool’, ‘Drakkar Noir’ and ‘Chloroform’ became one fluid entity, becoming almost completely indistinct from one another and, it quite frankly, was something that defies words. Immediately the crowd embraced the tracks like classics, proving that Bankrupt! is a continuation of the high standard that Phoenix have maintained throughout their career.
The encore was something that almost defies words as Thomas Mars proved himself to be above and beyond many other frontmen in the game. Not content with getting up close and personal with the front row, during ‘Entertainment (Reprise)’ he walked through the entirety of the downstairs crowd before climbing onto equipment and getting fans to pull him up onto the balcony before crowdsurfing back to the stage. It was something I certainly had not expected from Phoenix and took the gig from extraordinary to something words almost fail to describe.
Earlier in the night Mars had said it was their first show in England for a long time—from the back of this I can very much say it was well worth the wait for those lucky 5000 fans that got tickets. And now we all just have to hope that they’ll be returning to the UK to tour much sooner this time around.
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