I still remember sitting in my mom’s car as she picked up our pizza pie to go as I anxiously unwrapped my copy of Phoenix’s new album It’s Never Been Like That on CD. This was back in 2006 (I was 15), when CD’s were still a thing. Still at that age I read music blogs and remembered discovering “Sometimes In The Fall” on one and instantly falling in love with this French band that I had a hard time finding stuff about on google. Eventually I traced them back to Lost In Translation, and next thing you know, I had all their material. So seeing their amazing ascent to the top in 2009 with Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix was truly a pleasure. I’ve now been lucky enough to see them rock venues all over the place, and last night I got to photograph them in the photo pit of Barclays freaking Center. Surreal to say the least.
The Vaccines opened up the show to a half full crowd, which would probably make all their British fans sick to their stomachs. It was personally weird to see them play such a huge arena, after catching their first two U.S. shows at such tiny places. Still, the band has a arena worthy guitar rock sound that is all there for the taking. The songs off their most recent effort The Vaccines Come Of Age sounded tight, but it was the sharp youthfulness of the tracks from their debut album What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? that still rang very much true for me. These guys are just a good time live.
Phoenix have played MSG (with Daft Punk showing up) so this may not have been their biggest NYC show yet, but it definitely had that feeling. The French boys didn’t waste anytime kicking off into first gear, starting the show with a a huge 1-2-3 punch of “Entertainment”, “Lasso”, and “Lisztomania.” They kicked around most of the tracks from Bankrupt!, but played plenty of the tracks from the earlier days of their career that still make me swoon, such as “”Too Young”, “Run Run Run”, “If I Ever Feel Better”, “Consolation Prizes” and “Long Distance Call.”
Thomas Mars amazes me with just how willing he is to put himself right there with his fans. He, along with Matt Berninger of The National, are two guys who we know will usually end their shows in the crowd. But we take that for granted. We expect it from them, but do we really appreciate and treasure that they do this for us every show? If you were performing, would you do this? I don’t know man. It really makes me look at them with much more of an appreciation that I already do.
But night in, and night out, Thomas Mars sings in the crowd, joins them and puts his body on the line. After performing “Countdown” in the back of the floor on a piano he returned to the stage and then walked through a bunch of sections of the seated part of the arena to get to the back of the floor, walking through the crowd like it was nothing. Then he went into the crowd, they lifted him, he waved at us, and then dove full body into a sea of hands surfing the crowd all the way from the back to the front. He still wasn’t done. He then started individually inviting fans onto the stage during the reprise of “Entertainment” and then sure enough the rest of the crowd stormed the stage filling it up with fans, hugging and embracing the band. That’s how you play an arena show.
If you don’t think Phoenix are one of the coolest bands working right now, then please tell me what else they need to do to satisfy you. What a brilliant band, what a great show.
I have plenty of photos to share with you guys from both Phoenix and The Vaccines. Check them out below.
Phoenix:
The Vaccines:
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