When I first heard of this tour, and first heard rumor of this tour, I thought it was just too good to be true. Due to this fantastic line up, the concert was to no surprise, sold out. The opening act for this show was Mamiffer, who were an ambient/drone band that I think set a nice mood up for the rest of the concert to follow.
Mamiffer is actualy comprised of former Isis guitarist Aaron Turner, and his wife Faith Coloccia. Together they had a very interesting sound, between her vocals, bowed guitar, and looping themselves which all blended very nicely.
Their set had each song really flow into the next;
01. Rusal'e | 02. Dead Settlers | 03. Mercy | 04. Austejá
I absolutely love all of Alcest's work, and honestly their albums do not do them justice. Their performance was extremely beautiful and emotional, that while I completely love their albums all of that does not convey over a recording. One thing about Alcest, is that their music has the ability to connect so deeply with ones emotions, and can seriously help in feeling better if you are down.
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| Neige (Alcest) |
Prior to heading to the concert, I was stressed for various reasons, one being someone who I had known passed away and their funeral was that morning. But their music really helped me feel so much better, that even more than any time I've listened to their albums. Hearing them live is just showing that recordings can not do them justice, and what fantastic musicians they are for conveying so much emotion through their music to entirely captive the cramped and sold out audience.
Every aspect of their set held the crowd's full attention, whether it be the earthly more post-rock aspects from songs off Les Voyages de l'Âme, or the heaver parts where you can't help but head-bang along to. Granted with through all of this the crowd was pretty tight, but everyone was chill and just flowed with the music through whichever mood it traveled through. Their set was the following:
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| Alcest |
Two of the songs played were from their upcoming album Shelter, which after hearing I even more can not wait for its release. These songs were "Opale" and "Deliverance", which sounded absolutely fantastic. I keep re-watching a video recorded from the concert of "Opale" because it's just so beautiful; hearing those two songs live was a reminder of how much I am anticipating this album and am eager for its release. That song in particular is very warm and uplifting, where it almost transports you to another land (which is not unfamiliar for Alcest's music). Then they closed their set with the other new song, "Deliverance", which was just a nice way to conclude their older material they played with a note to look forward even more for what is to come.
Next Anathema was on, their first time as a whole band in the US in over ten years. Last time they were here, it was as support for Blackfield and only Vincent and Danny Cavanagh playing their songs acoustically. Granted they still had some problems with getting everyone overseas, unfortunately Jamie Cavanagh (bass) and John Douglass (drums) could not make it, so Daniel Cardoso (keyboards) moved on to drums and recommended Tobel Lopes to fill in on bass. All of that being said for what they had to accommodate, they put on a fantastic show.
Now with the [mostly] whole band, they played a lot off of Weather Systems, with a couple older songs as many of the fans in the audience have been waiting for over 10 years to see them live. During the set, they dedicated the song "Dreaming Light"* to both their manager [who was with them] and Steven Wilson for helping them get back on track.
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| Anathema |
[Intro] | 01. Untouchable, Part 1 | 02. Untouchable, Part 2 | 03. The Gathering of the Clouds | 04. Lightning Song | 05. Thin Air | 06. Dreaming Light | 07. Deep | 08. A Natural Disaster | 09. The Beginning and the End | 10. A Simple Mistake
Encore: | 11. Internal Landscapes | 12. Closer | 13. Fragile Dreams | [Outro]
Several of the songs they played featured vocalist Lee Douglas who sounded amazing. Her vocals are very prominent on Weather Systems, and on stage they just come across fantastic with the band.
After the concert, since it was a relatively small venue a bunch of the guys in Anathema and Alcest were downstairs meeting and talking with fans. I still can't believe this happened, by which I mean getting to meet Neige from Alcest. Even though I was kind of [really] awkward, he was just extremely nice and polite, very chill to talk to people.I also got to meet Vincent and Danny Cavanagh again, which was really cool. Talked to them a little bit, so that was just a nice way to end the concert. Now just to specify, the photo on the right is me with Neige, and happy beyond belief because of it. :)
I have to say this concert, Alcest's performance in particular, was one of the best concert's I've been to musically and just the emotional experience that was created with their music.
* If I remember correctly, this was the song that they dedicated to them, and unfortunately I did not catch the name of the manager who was on tour with them.
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| Atoms for Peace |
The live sound of Atoms for Peace is really unique even when compared to their album AMOK. There performance brought in a whole new dimension to their music, and more so to the songs that they played off of Thom Yorke's solo album The Eraser. The opening act for them was James Holden, who performed some really cool electronic music.
Throughout the performance Thom Yorke and Flea were dancing around the whole stage, and you could tell that the entire band just has so much energy that was brought through in the music. Even with having seats way high up (literally a couple rows from the ceiling), I had a great time. Happy to saw I've seen Thom Yorke live twice now, first with Radiohead at the Prudential Center last year, and now with Atoms for Peace.
Here is the set they played, and since I hadn't been looking into what they were playing on tour (I consider that to be a little bit of "spoilers"), I was pleasantly surprised with some of their songs:
01. Before Your Very Eyes... | 02. Default | 03. The Clock | 04. Ingenue | 05. Stuck Together Pieces | 06. Unless | 07. And It Rained All Night | 08. Harrowdown Hill | 09. Dropped | 10. Cymbal Rush
Encore: 11. Skip Divided | 12. Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses | 13. Rabbit in Your Headlights [UNKLE cover] | 14. Paperbag Writer [Radiohead cover] | 15. Amok
Encore 2: 16. Atoms for Peace | 17. Black Swan
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