Empire Of The Sun have always been a band I had wanted to see live. From what I saw from photos and videos their live show looked huge, something of a mix of a ravish costume party and a cirque du soleil performance. We got both things and more on Thursday night when the band played a free show at Gotham Hall for Intel/MTV Iggy under the title of a Music Experiment.
That it was. Everyone was asked to dress up for a cosmic masquerade, and everyone surely obliged. Before their set a group of fire eaters did some ravish tricks with fire to get the crowd warmed up. Soon Empire Of The Sun and wasted no time impressing me visually, with all kinds of costumed dancers, light shows, and big dance/rock tunes.
They played a nice mix of new and old, which of course included “We Are The People” and “Walking On A Dream.” New single “Alive” sounded incredible live, surely a song that will be used a plenty the rest of the year in movies and commercials. Luke Steele was a vibrant frontman dressed to impress and gave us some spectacle. One idiodic fan through a palstic beer bottle and him and Luke took it, frustratingly bounced it off the stage and continued to rock out. He basically told the fan to fuck off, without letting it break his performance. I was impressed with how cool he played that off, when that could have caused many artists to make it personal.
If you have a chance to see Empire Of The Sun, take it. It’s not just a concert, it’s a freaking show on all kinds of levels.
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