Daft Post (3/4)

Final, on to the robotic rockers, the electronic entertainers, the... damnit, "robotic" hasn't been in our vocabulary long enough, culturally speaking, to have a lot of synonyms. Anyway.

To the point: they were great.

The set didn't vary a lot from the one they performed a year ago at Coachella, but small changes made for a big improvement. The changed the mix on some of the less rocktastic pieces, and reordered a (very) few number of tracks. The result was that the funk was evenly distributed, and there slight more of it to begin with!

The lights, oh the lights... They used their same stage light setup (the "Pyramid"), but had a more elaborate set of effects they used. The also had a surprise the kept for about a third of the way into the show...

I think it was during Ratatat's set that we noticed some maintenance guys working on song gadget attached to the edge of the balcony (note: encircled the whole arena). I immediately guessed it was some sort of strobe, but I was only half right. They were the same light-bars (incredibly bright, one-dimensional color monitors, more or less) that they use for the triangular part of the pyramid. They finally turned them on partway into their mix of "Around the World", to incredible effect.

I found a clip on YouTube (apologies for the sound quality and shakey-cam, but it shows the lights well):


The colored patterns get washed out by the sheer brightness, but it was a sight to see -- suddenly, at the point in the song that the whole arena was anticipating (musically), we're bathed in a rainbow of light -- it was bloody brilliant.

From then on, the duo used the lights to good effect at the remaining high-points of the show, but nothing compares to the first time they lit up.

Ah, yes, one more difference from the Coachella set: they could play an encore. They made us wait for it -- if you looked closely, you could even see them in the shadows on the stage, waiting for us to earn it. When we finally got the goods, it started slow, but was worth it. The most noticeable pieces were "Human After All", "One More Time" and "Voyager", but there were a lot of bits mixed in I was unable to place, including the backbeat running the whole time.

They also had a costume change for the encore. Or, perhaps more accurately, a lighting change. They had red lights wired into every line and seam of their costumes, and turned off all the stage lights pointed directly at them. The end result was a pair of tron-like wireframe robots kickin' it hardcore for the finale.

A YouTube video of the full encore follows. They don't flip the costumes on until about 5 minutes in, and with the audio quality, you probably want to just skip ahead.



Also, make sure to watch the end. Nice exit.