M83 & The Dø @ Metro Theatre, Sydney
So M83 and The Dø played the Metro last night. I was there for the headliners so let’s start there.
I’ve been an M83 fan since the brilliant Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts but I had yet to see him/them live. M83 are definitely more a studio project than a live entity so I was concerned/intrigued with how the multi-layered songs would be achieved in a live setting. Currently, Anthony Gonzalez (who is M83) is accompanied live by a drummer, a guitarist, and a keyboardist, while Anthony himself jumps between keyboards/samples/guitar. I’m never a fan of bands using backing tracks live but M83 are pretty much forced to; taking that into account I thought the band did a decent job of making the songs take on a life of their own live.
The energy in Graveyard Girl and A Guitar and a Heart were great. In fact, I was pleased with every song the band did play (pretty much highlights from the last three records). However, the band were plagued by sound problems all night, punctuated by the vocals in Kim & Jessie drowning out every instrument on the stage. I’m not sure if the sound engineer was asleep or what but it pretty much wrecked the song. While this was the only problem I noticed/heard the band were clearly unhappy (but apologetic) for the entire (short) one hour set. It wouldn’t surprise me if we missed a song given the rather quick exit the band made after A Guitar and a Heart.
Returning for an encore the band overcame their issues and ended the night with a great version of Couleurs. As the band left the stage I felt a bit weird. I liked what I saw but felt the band could have played a while longer. And with little direct connection with the crowd, M83 really need to step up the visuals at their gigs. Screens would be great but even decent lights would have helped. Last night the band were shrouded in total darkness. Not something you see at a lot of “electronic” gigs where the musicians take care with the visual sides of their shows.
Setlist
Run Into Flowers
*
Graveyard Girl
We Own The Sky
Teen Angst
Don’t Save Us From the Flames
Kim & Jessie
A Guitar and a Heart
———
Couleurs
What made the slightly disappointing M83 performance more palatable was the fact that The Dø were so friggin’ awesome. I had only heard a few songs and they clearly gave me no indication of the energy and weirdness The Dø bring to the stage. Lead singer Olivia Bouyssou Merilahti was all over the place and her stage presence was exceptional. I fully expect this band to do great things in the future. Right now I’m off to find the album.
A few photos from the gig here.
