Phoenix
The Palace, Melbourne
Tuesday 4th August 2009
Smoove French pop sensations, Phoenix, have been one of the most blogged/raved about bands of 2009, largely due to their most recent LP Wolfgang Pheonix Amadeus. Result? Sold out shows most everywhere they go.
On their second and final show in Melbourne, Phoenix had all three levels of the Palace filled with dancing shoes. Right from the very bouncy opener of 'Lisztomania' there were smiles aplenty. The four piece (that tour as six) played a bunch of tracks from previous albums, right back to 2000 release, United. Songs like, 'If I Ever Feel Better', 'Consolation Prizes', 'Long Distance Call' and 'Run, Run, Run' had the crowd positively giddy and singing along to every word.
Frontman Thomas Mars' is an endearing focal point; with his floppy hair and boyish charm he had the crowds eyes locked on him as he trailed his red microphone cable all over the stage, even jumping down at one point to embrace a very excited front row. Cue bouncers/heart tears. "Everybody's dancin' oh yeah" may well be a quote from 'Too Young' but it's also the modus operandi for tonight. For all the accusations of being another lightweight French "pop" band, Phoenix were an amazingly tight and fun band to watch. Particularly their drummer-for-hire who was incredible, bashing away at the kit with such force, often standing up and hammering accents on the snare
Post main set fanfare, when Phoenix returned for their encore, only two members took to the stage. Blaming technical difficulties, they started with an acoustic version of 'Everything is Everything' which made for a lovely change of pace. The rest of the band soon ventured back to check off the few final songs.
The only down side that I can note was the overwhelming amount of pop-collared Mogans that not only gained entrance but were right behind me. One of them asked if he could have my beer bottle when I was done with it because he needed to piss. Presumably he couldn't risk going to an actual bathroom for fear of missing them play '1901'? When he was done, he made a point to tell us that he didn't "back arse" us. I don't even know what that means. Is this the price we pay for having hypemachine in our lives?
Overall much fun was had. And if you can judge a band by the length of the line for merch then Phoenix were, yes, better than you.