CONCERT REVIEW: Air @ The Electric Factory, 3/18

POSTED: Friday, March 19, 2010, 11:08 PM

Filed Under: Music Concert Review

Photo | Andrew Finn

"Can I lick it?"

Outside of the Electric Factory, Philadelphia, 11:30 p.m. Air's Jean-BenoÃ®t Dunckel hands a borrowed pen back to my friend Mike after using it to sign a few autographs, and some girl's immediate reaction is to lick it. Things weren't this totally bonkers off the bat, but all the ingredients were there.

Bright white light shone from the formidable visual effects system and was met with raucous applause as Dunckel, Nicolas Godin and their drummer appeared on the stage. Air made quick work of getting all out there. They kept up momentum by only pausing between songs long enough to have a guy in a miner's cap reprogram the Dunckel's moog and another to hand Godin a new instrument to completely tear apart.

Photo | Andrew Finn

Dunckel played bad cop with some serious no nonsense "Yes, I will slay you with this moog" stare-downs and triumphant gazes over the mass of people transfixed in the whole journey-through-space-and-time-thing we had been expecting. Across the stage, Godin shook his head back and forth when his bass-lines got almost too crunchy, as if to say "No, no, no, not yet."

Then they entered the hilarious robo-voice vocorder portion of the set, and things started getting pretty weird. The tempo of songs picked up, and a rhythmic swell broke up the day-dream trance settling in over the crowd. Gaps between songs got smaller, one note piano-wailing got more shameless. I couldn't take notes anymore because I was stuck in an epic sandwich of French and Americans and it's impossible to listen to Air spell out "P-E-O-P-L-E-C-I-T-Y" without only thinking "hey, that's me!"

I walked out into the warm Philadelphia night with a couple firmer conclusions in my head about life. For starters, between seeing Daft Punk and Air, evidence is mounting that French bands usually have at least one robot in them. And two, for coming from a country without a space-program, these guys know how to get super spacey. Like intergalactic. Like, people wanted to lick the pens they used after the show. But, Mike got his pen back, saliva free.

Eric

Posted 2010-03-30 18:46:07

Nice review. I just saw them on Friday in oakland qnd I got to say it was amazing.  Took off in my spaceship once the Frenchmen walked on the stage.

Posted by Tom Tiballi @ 11:08 PM Permalink | Post a comment

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