Phoenix @ Koko, London, June 09
Perfect little gig that was. Good energy, good crowd; it started early, finished early and I left with my hair dry. It was all very civilized and yet pleasantly loud and messy.
I’m a big fan of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix so that gig was a real treat as it showcased quite a few songs from that album. They kicked off with “Lisztomania”, which set the mood and energy beautifully for the rest of the night. They kept their energy levels and the noise up until halfway through their set when they interrupted the frenzy with “Love Like A Sunset (Part I)”, a nice instrumental interlude that gave Thomas Mars the chance to catch his breath (and have a lie down on stage). I loved the slow build up of that number and the explosive finish; making it my personal highlight of that gig. “Rome”, however, was a flop, comparatively. It’s probably the song from the album I’ve listened to most, so I was really looking forward to roming it in unison with Mars and my fellow gig monsters. Mars did try to warm us up with some clapping excercises and some “Rome Rome Rome” chanting but it didn’t work as well as the earlier “Run Run Run” and overall the crowd was simply not inclined to make that song a hit the way, say, “Too Young” had been just a few minutes earlier, and the way we were all prepared to make “1901” the climax of the night. Which we did during the encore.
Sidenote 1: The drummer tried his hardest to break his drum kit, battering his cymbals from a standing position for maximum force. He was rightly compared by last.fm’ers with Animal from the Muppets.
Sidenote 2: French peeps everywhere. There was a lot of talk about how personal hygiene was overrated and the stinkier the cheese, the better.
Sidenote 3: The guy next to me managed to give Thomas Mars a music demo of his stuff while Mars was crowd surfing on “1901”.
