Words by Christian Bischoff
Wisps of cloud filter through the bruise-blue sky. Music rings out from between a series of bone white ionic-columns, the suggestion of some sun washed ruin. As the familiar syncopated first notes of “Lisztomania” played, the lights came up on the sold out crowd.
The band played in front of an ambiguous Mediterranean backdrop that could have been Positano as easily as Mykonos. Phoenix, the French indie-rock outfit that rose to prominence with their surprise hit album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, have long been known for their music’s tongue-in-cheek evocation of 80’s European pop rock. 2017’s Ti Amo, the band’s last full length release, was a celebration of Italo-Kitsch that featured technicolor synths and Italo-American Bandstand stylized music videos. At Radio City Music Hall, the band translated the transportive quality of their work into a blend of light and sound that actualized that transportation. As the finals days of summer fell over the city, Phoenix brought the Mediterranean to New York.
Check out Pop Break’s interview with Phoenix
Lead Singer Thomas Mars
Phoenix is a meticulous band – their live performances carry the invariable polish of a seasoned band, and are almost indistinguishable from their studio recordings. That attention to detail isn’t lost on the stage design. A Phoenix show is as much art installation as concert – the band has collaborated with French lighting designer Pierre Claude for years, an artist who’s worked with other indie-rock stars like the Strokes and the XX. For the Alpha Zulu tour (launched to promote the titular album due out November 4, the band’s first LP in five years), the group played in a multi-tiered LED frame, a hyper bright layer cake that projected everything from the interior of the palace at Versailles (the setting of the “Entertainment” music video) to the entire observable universe itself (during the band’s monumental instrumental track “Love Like a Sunset”).
Local act Porches opened the night, plying the crowd with auto-tune tinged rock and the summery exuberance of their latest record, All Day Gentle Hold! Phoenix played a mix of hits from their collected work, playing a medley of “Too Young” into “Girlfriend” before a false start on J-Boy (“It’s been three nights in a row I messed this up,” frontman Thomas Mars admitted. “Do you know the first lyrics?’ he asked an audience member. “Can you look them up?”). They played their latest single, “Tonight,” sans the Ezra Koenig feature, and performed a new track for the first time, “Winter Solstice.” For the encore, Mars returned to the stage with keyboardist/guitarist Laurent Brancowitz accompanying him on harpsichord, crooning through “Fior di Latte” and “Telefono,” a longing love song to Mars’s partner, filmmaker Sofia Coppola. A pair of modified binoculars was the star of the band’s rendition of “Trying to be Cool,” as concert goers were projected onto the huge display behind the band as captured by Mars. The night ended with Mars climbing through the audience after performing “1901.”
The lights came up and everyone filtered into the street. Manhattan felt a bit more European than it had three hours ago.
