Daft Punk Are Human After All
August 7th, 2007
WOW.
As you may know, on Sunday I saw Daft Punk for the first (and possibly only?) time in my illustrious concert-going career. It was such an incredible spectacle of sound and lights that I don’t know if writing about it can do it even a shred of justice.
When we arrived at Arrow Hall (how is it that I’ve never been to Arrow Hall in my life, yet this week alone I was there twice?) there was an enormous line of partygoers coiling around the entirety of the parking lot. The crowd was prime fodder for an issue of Vice’s “Dos & Don’ts” section. In fact, I’d wager that you could fill the contents of an entire book based on the wardrobes of the concert goers. Everyone was either dressed horribly right, or horribly wrong. I was SO jealous that I wasn’t part of THIS crew - pictured here is about 1/4 of the neon partygoers that coordinated outfits:
The Rapture opened - while I’m not a huge fan of the band, I do like one song a lot (Don Go Do It) which they thankfully played before tearing into a segue for Sebastian & Kavinsky’s DJ set that preceded Daft Punk’s grand entrance. As soon as the DJs started playing (treating us to a mix of Klaxons, Justice & Daft Punk songs, remixed), people started losing their shit. Everyone was butted up against each other and a huge cloud of condensation started to form above the sweaty mass.
At 9:41, eleven minutes after Daft Punk were supposed to start, but four minutes before they actually did, I heard the familiar guitar of Rage Against The Machine’s Killing In The Name Of, a song that downright terrifies me when it’s played in public, if only for the fact that 80% of the crowd at Daft Punk was made of dudes under the influence of one thing or another, 100% of whom were getting anxious and cranky that Daft Punk hadn’t gone on stage yet. The choice to play a remix of this song was pretty socially irresponsible - because once it kicked in to the part where Zack starts screaming “Fk you, I won’t do what ya tell me!!!”, the tightly packed crowd started pogo-ing like crazy and thrashing around like angry gnats.
Daft Punk’s entrance was spectacular. As other reviews have stated, it was a non-stop lights spectacle customized to every beat of every song. Hearing Daft Punk at such a constant, throbbing level made me feel like I’d been transported onto the island of Ibiza, with everyone around me dancing with their eyes closed. EVERYONE was dancing and/or jumping along; it was an outright dance holocaust!! The only annoying part was the incessant crowd surfing. With everyone facing the front, getting kicked or nudged in the head with someone’s boot or other body part was a total nuisance. One guy face planted into the concrete floor so hard when no one caught him that he was wiping his bloody maw onto his shirt for the rest of the show.
And the setlist…oh wow. It was a constant medley of favourites, with Daft Punk weaving songs like Around The World, Harder, Better Faster Stronger and Technologic into a bunch of other songs seamlessly. I was SO glad that they played my three absolute favourite songs: Human After All, Rollin’ & Scratchin’, Aerodynamic and Crescendolls. I can’t get a hold of the exact setlist, but if I recall correctly, they opened with Robot Rock before morphing into One More Time and then a super extended version of Technologic. The only songs missing from the set (IMO) were Veredis Quo and Digital Love.
I loved that the crowd were doing the “pyramids”, as demonstrated here. More pics from the show, and video.
Performance Photos Courtesy Getty Images
Posted on Tuesday, August 7th, 2007 at 12:13 pm by Kat and is filed under Concerts & Events.
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19 Responses to “Daft Punk Are Human After All”
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let it be noted that kat suffered from a dance aneurysm during “Human After All”… when i first saw what was happening i thought something had gone seriously wrong. Then i recognized the tell tale signs, and realized she was just losing her sh*t.
oh and the rapture… bunch of funboys who have 2 good songs… did i say funboys i meant “bunch of swell dudes who played hit after hit”
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The Rapture were just…OK.
It may have been a combi of anxiously & impatiently waiting for Daft Punk to get started though. But yeah. The vocals…grating. And every song sounded tinny & sorta the same! Maybe the sound was just bad.
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Did they cover “Daft Punk is playing at my house”?
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ive wanted to see that band play since 1996…and its never happened:(
their shows are getting too expensive…especially since now they are ‘trendy’ to listen to.
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Best concert of the year!
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Having seen The Rapture once before and not being impressed by them, I thought they did an awesome 60-minute set on Sunday.
Their performance was tight and their sound filled the room well.
Bonus points for all the cowbell.
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@ dbrains: The tickets were like $70 after service charges…but they were selling them cheaper on Craigslist. But still, worth it for the ’show of a lifetime’ for many people. I overheard a lot of people saying they never thought they’d get to see DP live in their lifetime, or that they had been waiting a decade to see them perform.
@ Mitchua: I wish they had!!! They did play “Music Sounds Better With You” though, which isn’t their own song (but a lot of people think is).
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NEON PARTY RULES!!!!!!!!!!
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ROCK ON THE NEON CREW!!!!!
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I heard the guy in orange neon with a gatorade in that pic is in a wicked hip hop / office space group!
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who IS that guy in orange???
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Fantastic lightshow. I didn’t want it to end. I’m bummed that they didn’t play Digital Love but maybe it was too slow for their set?
Correct me if I’m wrong but I think this set was similar to what they played at Coachella? Same setlist?
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there’s nothing wrong with the neon crew. when i saw them in LA i brought in probably close to a million glowsticks. it was sweet.
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When, in the encore, they played two non-daft punk songs (”together” and “music sounds better with you”) I lost it. two club classics that thomas bangalter (the taller one) brought into this world in side projects, extra treats.
I’m also a rapture fan and enjoyed the set - the sound was quite good, every instrument loud. especially considering we were in an airport hanger.
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Oh yeah! I read a review of one of their shows last week that said they incorporated “Music Sounds Better…” into their set. I was so glad they played it for us!
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Awesome show! I’ll be there for the next one whenever that is…
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i was there! i loved it! lightshow, dancing, glosticks…the lot!
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Awesome pics Kat! That was one AMAZING concert. I’d watch them again in a heartbeat.
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They (the Rapture) play an entire set for you and only one song stood out? Either they were just that bad… or maybe you like bad music… yeah.
can I get a second opinion from someone who was there?