Phoenix

We All Get Replaced or Best Diet Ever

You had a good run, photographers. Supplanting us writers as the easiest, most accessible story-telling medium. That stupid “Thousand Words” aphorism (attributed to the Chinese, Turgenev and Napoleon, respectively) having us all run to our wordprocessors and churn out as much as possible in an attempt to stay relevant. Your comeuppance will come (up)! Napoleon knew that, too. Vive la scribe!

Which brings us to Phoenix, the band that left more sweat on the floor of the Varsity than Richard Simmons at a nymphomaniac convention. Phoenix are a pretty ok band from France mostly notable for making jaunty pop-rock, being named for a city in Arizona and the lead singer’s romantic involvement with Sofia Coppola (mostly notable for ruining Godfather III, redeeming herself via Bill Murray’s sad sack routine and making wine that comes in soda cans.) Phoenix also managed to put out one of the best albums of the year with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart because a) they are smart, which always helps a rocker (cf. Alice Cooper, Nick Cave) with arrangements of polyrhythms and harmonies, b) they are at least bi-lingual, allowing them to write in the lingua franca (English, in this case) that sells records that readers on this continent would be most likely to hear, c) they are French, so Thomas Mars’ (the aforementioned lead singer) diction (really, the only thing that being French would affect as music itself knows no creed race or color) is endearing and his stuttering repetitious phrasing is energetic and eccentric (there is a reason Tourette’s Syndrome is named for a Frenchman) as opposed to affected and d) they are out to have fun, so really none of what I’ve just written matters.

It also doesn’t really matter, because there is video of the event, thus negating any efforts (or at least lifting the obligation on the writer) to deliver some tedious blow-by-blow of the event. Writers can be good journalists and accurately document the sequential order of events and if were feeling quirky toss in how it made us “feel” but it is often fails to capture the full sensibility of the event. We are good at documenting things that are supposedly fun, writing in the ironic voice, calling out injustice, but you don’t need too many words for sharp, sunny, bouncing pop that comes cutting across the room like the reflections off a Fender’s finish. Granted, there are times when text is far superior (Gatsby/Neruda/Bukowski etc.) but this may just not be this time. The photogs had a good time of it too, but the video here is the real deal, the step-right-up-folks moment. The only text necessary might be all the references to fun and sweat from the Twitterverse, and my apologies for the sound quality.

Without further ado, Phoenix and their Amazing Live Action Set List.

Lisztomania
Long Distance Call
Consolation Prizes
Lasso
Napoleon Says

Phoenix- Varsity Theater, Minneapolis 6/23/09- Lasso into Napoleon Says from CakeIn15 on Vimeo.

Funky Square Dance
Rally
Girlfriend

Phoenix- Varsity Theater Minneapolis 6/23/2009- Girlfriend from CakeIn15 on Vimeo.

Armistice
Love Like A Sunset- Mars spent most of this song lying up against the monitor. Maybe he was just tired, maybe he was pulling some sort of ego-play, maybe he was just taking his government mandated break and enjoying easy access to healthcare as a French citizen. Any which way, the song rocked.
Run Run Run

Phoenix- Varsity Theater, Minneapolis 6/23/09- Run Run Run from CakeIn15 on Vimeo.

Too Young
Sometimes in the Fall
Rome

ENCORE!!!!!!clapclapclapclapwhistlestompclap
If I Ever Feel Better

Phoenix- Varsity Theater, Minneapolis, 6/23/09- If I Ever Feel Better from CakeIn15 on Vimeo.

1901-I wasn’t going to tape this, I was dancing too hard and getting out those last couple ounces, but then some crazy adulation shit went down and this was too good not to share.

Phoenix- Varsity Theater, Minneapolis, 6/23/09- 1901 Finale from CakeIn15 on Vimeo.