M83, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and Phantogram | Hollywood Bowl | 9/22/13

Phoenix, Daft Punk, Justice … France turns out some great electro, synth pop bands. Oh yeah … M83 is pretty damn good too. Named after the spiral galaxy Messier 83, M83’s music is as cosmic as that system of stars. Adding a full orchestra and choir to their already sonically complex arrangements like “Midnight City” only raised the level of their cosmic sound.

I wasn’t planning on attending the show.  In fact, I had been offered to get in on tickets when they first went on sale, but passed it up since I purchased some tickets for other shows and funds, at the time, were running low. But as fate would have it, a dear friend of mine called me up last minute the day before the concert to see if I wanted to attend the sold out show, and I got to attend the last installment of KCRW Radio’s World Festival series.  The stars were definitely aligned for me …

The indie pop/Electronic rock band Phantogram opened for M83. It was my first time listening to their music, but I could tell why they were opening for M83. Their songs were all dance friendly, and had catchy hooks. Sarah Barthel’s vocals were strong and sexy. The band didn’t seem intimidated by performing on the famous stage, but they expressed their humble gratitude by acknowledging the hallowed stage they were on, and thanked the audience for listening.

Their setlist, from www.setlist.fm was:

1. When I’m Small
2. Mouthful of Diamonds
3. As Far as I Can See
4. Celebrating Ugly
5. Black Out Days
6. Don’t Move
7. Voices
8. When I’m Small

M83’s performance, back by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and its choir, was stunning. For a band whose music is already big with layered synths, guitars and voices, I wondered how the orchestral arrangements would come off and how it would alter the original arrangements. Surprisingly, the orchestra didn’t overpower the band’s sound. Rather, at least in my humble opinion, they seemed to be used only to accent the original sound. Truth be told, it was hard to me to actually note when the orchestra was playing and when they weren’t. M83’s sound, alone, is that big.

M83 used a lot visual media  in their performance.  Though it was hard for me to actually glean what the purpose of some of the visual montages were, I supposed that it was used to evoke mood and metaphors for the audience to come up with. As visually stunning as the montages were, personally, I think that the performance could have done without it, as I hardly spent time watching the video screens.

M83 brought up a couple of special guests during their performance: grade-school aged Zelly Meldal-Johnsen (performing “Raconte Moi une Histoire”) and Brad Laner (from the band Medicine) and though each special guest’s performance was entertaining (Zelly’s song about the frog was especially cute), I was hoping that the special guests, especially at the Hollywood Bowl, would have been more exciting or well-known….  After all, it IS the Hollywood Bowl.

Special guests notwithstanding, M83’s performance was the kind of show you hope to see- and is typically delivered- at the Hollywood Bowl. Grand in scale. Aurally pleasing. Toss in a seat in a Terrace Box, with great friends on a lazy Sunday? Perfect.

Setlist procured from www.setlist.fm:

1. In the Cold I’m Standing
2. Intro
3. Reunion
4. Sitting
5. We Own The Sky
6. Steve McQueen
7. Splendor (with Brad Laner)
8. Wait
9. Moonchild
10. Raconte-moi une histoire (with Zelly Boo Meldal-Jophnsen)
11. Skin of the Night
12. Midnight City
13. Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun

Encore:

1. Oblivion (Susanne Sundfor)
2. Outro
3. Couleurs

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