M83 at the Music Box Last Night



M83
Nov. 9, 2011
The Music Box


It's fitting that M83 chose a glittering starscape as the background for their set last night at the Music Box. Their music feels like you're being dragged on a grand journey through the cosmos–though not in a modern sci-fi sense. Think more along the lines of David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust, or perhaps a charmingly outdated '80s sci-fi space odyssey. (The band were preceded by someone walking onstage wearing a costume of that bizarro Alf-looking thing from the cover of Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, if that gives you any clue.)

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Whatever the reason for that shimmering backdrop, M83 certainly have
the concept of space down pat. Their set felt as if they vaulted
from Earth with brilliant speed, filling the Music Box with outspoken
synth zaps and twangs. Other times, the music slowed down so you would feel the
emptiness in the void of space, letting the higher synth notes fade into
lower atmospheric ones. And front man Anthony
Gonzalez
found a balance between the jump-inducing fast tunes and the
enrapturing atmospheres, letting a breakdown slow things down to allow the
audience to feel the grand scope of quasars passing into infinity.

Though
the space metaphor could have taken over the entire night, Gonzalez
made sure to keep what was happening onstage interesting. Banter was at a minimum, with the front man giving the audience a short, French-accented
greeting toward the beginning of the set. Several guests appeared onstage, though, including Zola Jesus for the opening song, “Intro,” which was the beginning track on Hurry Up, We're Dreaming.

Seemingly
out of nowhere, a saxophone player appeared for a solo on “Midnight
City”; a man in a black suit and sunglasses took the stage, tore up
his solo and then left. (I almost expected Jon Hamm to bust through the
wall in suspenders and was only slightly disappointed that he didn't.)

At times,
M83's method of sonic ambition seemed to outgrow the space inside the
Music Box; during some of their more involved synth jams, sound seemed
to warp back in upon itself. This could have been entirely on purpose,
trying to project the infinity in a domain-shift metaphor for
oft-repeated synth loops, but what resulted was more of an acute
awareness of the confined area around us.

Still, it was easy to
ignore these trifling moments of vexation and concentrate on
the atmospheric blanket of sound hovering in the air. If you weren't
dancing lost in space, you were standing in awe at the mass sensory
overload that Gonzalez and company conjured during their set. Bright
yellows, oranges, purples, blues and pinks defined visually what the
music conveyed aurally, completing the sort of all-encompassing synthesis Gonzalez seemed to have wanted to create.

Despite
their few shortcomings, M83 managed to maintain an ambience that
wrapped up the audience and brought them into whatever cosmos they had
imagined, with the energy to propel the Music Box into
their seemingly endless soundscape. Theirs was an infinity
worth testing the boundaries of; they appeared to have gotten us all
hooked on it, such that walking outside to the streets of
Hollywood Boulevard felt like a crash-landing to an Earth we never left.
(Though, seriously, what's up with that weird Alf monster? Gives me the
creeps.)

Critic's Bias:  I was hungover the first time I heard
“Raconte-Moi Une Histoire,” and it was the only thing that made any kind
of sense to me. (IHOP, sadly, did not.)

The Crowd: A lot of really pretty people in sweaters who really like to dance.

Overheard in the Crowd:
“I looked at how much I paid this morning, and I was just like, 'Ho-lee-SHIII . . .'”
“I love you. Like. Fucking love. You.”
“Oh, God. Hold me. Guys, hold me. Guys.”

Random
Notebook Dump:
I'm not sure how this happened, but I ended up standing
next to and meeting Pat Grossi of Active Child during M83's set. Nice to
have met you, Pat!

Setlist:
“Intro”
“Reunion”
“Kim & Jessie”
“Year One, One UFO”
“My Tears Are Becoming a Sea”
“Teen Angst”
“We Own the Sky”
“Steve McQueen”
“Wait”
“This Bright Flash”
“Claudia Lewis”
“Midnight City”
“Guitar & a Heart”
Encore:
“Skin of the Night”
“Couleurs”

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