daft punk concert review: red rocks, 7/31/2007
August 1, 2007 by Cash
“Beyond Fuck”.
That’s what I told my good friend (and former UM contributor) Glenn the entirety of this review would be.
Succinct, yet accurate? Yes. Able to convey last night’s mind blowing experience to people unfortunate enough to have missed it? No. With that being said, I’ll do my best to describe the show.
Beneath the towering rocks we waited. An eerie, red disco ball of the almost full moon hanging surreal in the haze above. A strange energy pulsing through the crowd; some sort of sextricity that seemed to buzz in and out of everyone around me. The black curtain shrouding the stage finally fell, and with a massive euphoric roar Daft Punk and the ten thousand screaming earthlings merged; robot humans ready to rock.
The thumping bass and filtering synths began and in an instant, the crowd (a cast of characters assembled much earlier) became part of the show.
The man with a hollowed-out TV set on his head. The gorgeous, time travelling go-go dancer in her neon yellow fishnet bodysuit, hot pink booty shorts and bra. The teenager in the nun’s outfit, replete with electric orange oversized sunglasses. Everyone of them moving, jumping, surrendering to the spell of the sound thumping against us.
And what a sound.
From beneath a massive techno-lightstick latticework; Daft Punk cranked out the hits. Spanning their full catalogue from Homework to Human After all, singles merged and remixed into album tracks. Entirely new songs seemed to sizzle to life. At the center of the interstellar pyramid, bobbing over the controls; Daft Punk themselves, shrouded in their gleaming silver spacesuits.
Small sparks of color began to appear in the stands. Glow sticks. Hundreds of them. Airborne. Flying overhead like falling neon stars. Disappearing into the crowd for a second, then reappearing and spinning onward to another point in the crowd.
The show above us though was no match for what was happening onstage. I’ve been privy to plenty of technically advanced lightshows, and all I can say is “U2, with your ‘Popmart’ spectacle: you just got OWNED”. Like an electro Escher painting shocked to life, a thousand colors dancing through the geometric grid. Strobe lights backed by shimmering visuals projected on the pyramid walls. Sudden darkness, replaced with the twinkling starlight of a million violet LEDs.
An experience straight out of the future in a place born thousands of years in the past.
Glorious. Without equal. If Daft Punk is coming to your town, sell your brother to be at the show.
A+++
By far the best show I’ve ever seen. Truly a spectacle. To get a better idea of what they do, check out the pics from the Seattle show a few days ago.
But if you plan on going and don’t know what’s in store, skip the pics and let them blow you away firsthand.
Man, I wish I would’ve gone.
I have been trying to put the show into words but keep getting overwhelmed trying to do so. Mister Cash has done just that; Danke. I realized somewhere three quarters of the way in that i had completely stopped paying attention and was simply in a trance which has never happened to me. And THEN they come out and drop their Tron suits on me for the encore. I thought I was going to lose it. All electronic shows got owned that night. ALLLLLL!
There’s also a Google Video of Coachella, but it doesn’t do the live experience justice..
Sean; oh my gawd how could I have neglected to mention the Tron suits!!?? So So true.. so so amazing.
This was by far the most amazing show I’ve ever witnessed. I live in Colorado Springs and after the show my friends and I got back in the car and sadly waved goodbye to Red Rocks, the 5 of us, all huge music lovers, drove the entire way back to the Springs without a single bit of music playing. The music at Daft Punk was…not of this world. Everything fit together so well, perfect. The tron suits were amazing, as Daft Punk turned around and walked away…I don’t think I have ever exerted so much yelling in my entire life.
Daft Punk live…it should be a mandatory event to be experienced. Its life changing
Tyler; you said it. Life changing indeed. I literally cannot stop thinking about it.
I was there when we got rabbit-punched at Coachella and I caught the Sports Arena show two weeks ago. I’m here in Toronto salivating for tomorrow night’s show.
This is the best thing in the world. I realized at one point during the LA show that “this is the happiest I am ever going to be in my lifetime”.
How sad is that?
Oh - and I got Vegoose tkts so it’ll happen again.
Beautiful words brother. I couldn’t freakin believe it myself. Life changing. And I thought I had seen every one of the best shows at Red Rocks (including the famous U2 night). Now I have a new show at the top. Hands down the best. It was my 10 year-old’s first concert and he’s a HUGE fan. Lucky first concert!
Just came back from the concert in Toronto, Canada. The most amazing show I have ever been to. As was said, the light show was truly spectacular, and I could not believe my eyes. The music was the best part though, remixes of a great assortment of Daft Punk songs.
This show blew me away. Also as said, do whatever you can to get to this show if it comes anywhere near you.
Even if it doesn’t come near you, go to it anyway. You wont be disappointed.
[...] Daft Punk’s use of Tron like suits for the final encore of their amazing Red Rocks performance got me thinking about the venerable piece of sci-fi. I can say for myself, it was one of the things that got me obsessed with technology in the first place. News of a sequel, and some of the tidbits being release about potential contributors has me buzzing with excitement. [...]
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