M83 made each and every note feel gigantic at First Avenue
If you’re going to name your band after something as grandiose as a spiral galaxy, you better make sure you have a sound expansive enough to do it justice. Six albums into his career, French musician Anthony Gonzalez has proven on multiple occasions that he has the chops and panache to live up to his name’s interstellar origins, but if last night’s sold-out show at First Avenue was any indication, it’s looking less likely that a mere galaxy is going to be able to hold his growing magnitude as a performer.
That’s hyperbole, of course, but it’s also about as close as you can get to describing just how gigantic each and every note of every song felt during the 80-minute runtime. There’s always a chance with electronic music (no matter how good it is) that something won’t translate as well as it could from album to stage. However, as M83 has gradually shifted into becoming the stadium rockers of electronic sounds, there wasn’t a single moment during the performance that registered as dead space.
After exciting and creeping out the crowd with an appearance by Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming’s alien suit cover subject, Gonzalez fittingly opened up the evening with the new album’s opener, “Intro.” And while it would have been nice to have singer Zola Jesus on stage for it like a spoiled audience in L.A. got last week, keyboardist Morgan Kibby more than made up for it with spirited and powerful vocals that pushed the song to a climax even more awe-inspiring than it appears on the album.
After a few stops into older material (“Teen Angst” and the dreamily nostalgic, “Kim & Jessie”), the remainder of the night was almost solely fixated on the band’s latest double album, with a spirited and bouncy version of “Reunion,” that, like the songs before it, was aided by an energetic light show and gorgeous LED star backdrop.
“We Own The Sky” and “Year One, One UFO,” the latter of which sounds like a wacked-out version of a U2 intro, mellowed out the concert a bit with their bedroom-pop leanings, but the night would eventually hit its stunning highpoint with a rendition of “Steve McQueen,” which in itself is a contender for song of the year, and was only made better by a live version that had the propulsion of a rocket launcher or three. And while its follower, “Wait,” may not have had the same sense of kinetic energy, its hold on the crowd was just as strong. By far the most beautiful and poignant moment of the evening, “Wait” practically turned the Mainroom into a lost high school prom, all swaying bodies and misty eyes brought on by increasingly strong and moving vocals from Gonzalez.
It was hard to believe all this was being done by just four individuals on a stage considering how enveloping and giant everything felt, but M83 would continue to impress with “Claudia Lewis” and current single (and current Victoria’s Secret campaign song) “Midnight City,” which was by far the biggest dance party moment of the blistering set.
Gonzalez closed with the instrumental “A Guitar And A Heart” before encoring with “Skin Of The Night,” which found Kibby sounding very Kate Bush-like over its percolating percussion and shoegaze synths. As enrapturing as it was, it was all just foreplay for “Couleurs,” which was a perfectly dramatic end to an already dramatic night. If it’s any indication how out of control this got, Gonzalez was spotted putting his head in his hands more than a few times during it’s 10-plus-minute running time.
During the few moments Gonzalez spoke throughout the evening, his French accent was as meek and unassuming as a voice could possibly get, but after a performance this engaging and magnanimous, it’s safe to say it’s a quality that has absolutely nothing do with his music.
