Phoenix

Saturday, June 12, 2010

The Deal: Grammy Award-winning French band makes a pit stop in Charlotte for a set before Bonnaroo.

The Good: There's a lot to be said about a band that not only reproduces its album sound live but also enhances it, and Phoenix is a band you have to see live. While the bulk of the show was good with extremely crisp execution from the band, who at times seemed robotically into hitting every note just so, it was the last chapter of this show that was the story here.

Lead singer Thomas Mars literally created a moment putting together what had to be Road Runner Mobile Ampitheatre's (formerly Uptown Ampitheatre) first legendary encore that anyone who stuck around for will never forget. After covering Air's "Playground Love," the band went into their hit song, "1901" — that's when Mars took his corded mic, hopped off stage and proceeded to walk all the way out to the edge of the lawn, as audience members spilled out into the aisles to follow him and hundreds of feet of cable dangled behind him. He thanked the crowd sincerely then started singing again as he worked his way back to the stage by climbing over seats, hands and people before ending the show with a senior picturesque sea of humanity on stage to join him. Who cares if he's done it in other cities, it was a special.

Drunmer Thomas Hedlund (who actually isn't in the band) was great. "Borrowed" from his Swedish band, The Perishers, you'd never know he wasn't in the band from the way he went ape shit on the drums and sang along at the top of his lungs without a mic.

The Bad: Mars apologized for his voice early in the show, and you couldn't really notice then but as it went on you could tell he wasn't in tip-top singing shape, at some points being a low mumble or completely indecipherable. For those getting progressively drunker off the Bud Light tallboys, the lights were more blinding than cool.

The crowd was so unexpected. The sexting teenage girls and hipster emo chicks was standard but the flip-flop, backwards hat frat guys and middle aged couples all singing along was trippy, and at times the cross-section of people clashed in distracting ways (little girls hate when frat guys scream, play "Firebird" while their lusting for Thomas Mars).

Personally wanted to hear, "Napoleon Says" but they stuck with newer material.

The Verdict: Great show. Sure, a lot of the songs sound alike but at least they sounded good playing them. Mars  made sure that every fan left with their monies worth, and at the end of the day, his voice not being 100 percent wasn't a major issue. Nice tune-up for Bonnaroo and hopefully the first of many annual visits to Charlotte.

Setlist:

Lisztomania

Long Distance Call

Lasso

Consolation Prize

Fences

Girlfriend

Fallin

Love Like A Sunset

If I Ever Feel Better

Run, Run, Run

Rally

Countdown (Sick For The Big Sun)

Funky Square Dance

Everything Means Everything*

Playground Love (Cover)*

1901*

* - encore

Reflection Eternal w/ Actual Proof

Friday, June 11, 2010

The Deal: Hip-hip duo hits Charlotte in support of their studio first album together in a decade, Revolutions Per Minute.

The Good: 9th Wonder jumped on the turntables for his group, Actual Proof, and the duo out of Raleigh was awesome. High-energy and engaging, they tore through their set with the flair of hip-hop veterans — but it was actually their first show ever. Unbelievable. Can't forget their female labelmate, Rapsody, who was the best female rapper I've seen in some time.

Talib Kweli's personality will never come off as high-energy but the low-key star was on the cusp of what could be described as that, ripping into a mix of old Reflection Eternal material from their previous album, Train of Thought, and incorporating new material somewhat seamlessly (the benefits of being one of the last tour dates). The only thing that could've gotten the crowd more excited about the Black Star tracks he performed would've been the actual presence of Mos Def.

Kweli also had fellow Brooklynite and Charlotte transplant, Special Ed, come up to perform two of his hits, rocking "I Got It Made" with him. Watching 9th Wonder's reaction to this, standing side stage, is one of those moments that make live shows worth it.

Always interesting to see Hi-Tek on the mic, because production is obviously his strong suit, but the hit maker was extra excited to get into verses from his album, Hi-Teknology and Train of Thought and rocked them admirably.

The pro-Black images displayed behind Reflection Eternal during "Get By" during the encore made me want the march on something like right that second.

The Bad: Transplant culture bit us in the ass once again. It's always sad when an artist has to stop the show and question how really into it the crowd is but in our defense, you're asking people who aren't from Charlotte to scream for a city they didn't want to move to and have even less pride in.

For those not familiar with the new material, it was a forced smile-and-nod situation rocking the songs they didn't really know.

Other than one guy having to be removed from the venue for his drunken exploits, the only other annoyances in the crowd came from fans under 5'5 trying to reach up and take pictures or record shitty footage on their phones. Grow 6 inches or come on time!  Thanks.

The Verdict: Cool show, nothing legendary. Great to see hip-hop be hip-hop and the joy it brought people. Eagerly awaiting new material from Actual Proof now and hoping more people take a chance on Revolutions Per Minute.