prime time of your life
(photo credit: Jellybeanz on Flickr)
If you come here with any regularity, you may have noticed that I go to a lot of shows (somewhere between 40 and 50 this year so far). I say that for no other reason than to give you some perspective when I say that Daft Punk last night was one of the single best performances I've seen in my entire life. I had read about their now legendary set at Coachella a few years back, but even with pictures, audio, and video to go along with the stories, nothing could really prepare you for actually seeing the robot rockers live.
PFork has some photos if you want to get a feel for what the visuals were like. They're really great snaps, but they don't really capture just how mind-numbingly awesome everything looked. Rest assured that it wasn't all flash without any substance either - far from it. The duo dropped a set that was full of the "hits," but almost all of them were re-worked, re-built, or flipped in some way (even if it was subtle).
When they kicked off "Robot Rock" to start the set, you could feel the excitement starting to build, but when they dropped "Human After All" part way through and the entire wall behind them lit up spelling out "HUMAN" in multi-story high letters, it was pretty evident that we were going to be in for something special. There weren't any lowlights and it's even hard to pick a highlight. It really was amazing from start to finish. To top if off, the crowd (at least 99.9% of it) was wonderful. Everyone was dancing, there was hardly any pushing or shoving, there were elaborate Daft Punk inspired costumes, and two awesome people were so excited they were waving their crutches in the air.
Pity the Rapture for having to open this tour. They're one of my favourite live acts, and their set was great... but they didn't even compare to the headliners. Really, how could they? They're mere men. Daft Punk are robot superheroes.
On that note, pity SebastiAn and Kavinsky who were treated less like part of the draw and more like some sort of pair of faceless, between-set distraction. It wouldn't have killed the venue to turn the lights down when they were spinning. They made up for the lack of spotlight by absolutely killing it at the after-party though.
Speaking of the after-party, props to Vancouver for coming out in force and showing Seattle how to get down. I think I knew or recognized half the bar (which doesn't even happen here), and also met some people from here that I didn't know.
On a final, tangentally related note, the next time you find yourself drunk in an American bar, you should know that this crap will make you feel really funky (in a bad way) the next morning. This will cure that feeling, however. That's my public service for the day.
Rob was there too. He agrees that the show was nuts.
now playing: Les Savy Fav - Rodeo
Labels: daft punk, show recaps
5 Comments:
the Sparks/Dick's combo makes your trip sound even more EXACTLY like mine! Wowza!
By 
Unknown, at
10:39 a.m.
SPARKS IS DELICIOUS! some kids from over here went down too and agreed that it was a rad show. i'm kicking myself for not going when i had the chance.
By thelottery, at
11:27 a.m.
According to their website, The Bravery are opening up the Smashing Pumpkins show.
By 
, at
10:45 p.m.
Totally agreed. One of the five best concerts I have ever seen.
One of the best shows i've seen as well. Shame they didn't lower the lights for Seb/Kav's 2nd set. Great seeing them at chopsuey though. Vancouver was out in Full Force there and at the show.
By , at
6:07 p.m.
