CTA Doomsday Schedule: Day 2
As Pace Struggles, CTA Claims "No Major Delays" After Doomsday Day One
Calumet Fisheries Wins James Beard Award
How To: Roast a Chicken (If You're an Idiot)
30 Percent Chance Of Hailey
Usually when we see a show that really blows us away, the initial impact is stunning, and then fades to a fond moment or two in our head. Daft Punk's performance at last year's Lollapalooza forced us to walk away from that show with an entirely new inner relationship with the band.
No drugs were involved, and to be truthful, the full impact of their show was lost on us until we ventured out and submerged ourselves in the middle of the crowd in order to convey an honest account -- sans the usual disconnect suffered between most critics and the audience they write for -- of the performance of two robots atop a pyramid. And that simplicity does in fact capture the heart of the show, but it does no justice to the full scope of the physical presence of the volume, and the stunning glory of the images interlocking and propelling that volume across a field packed with rapturous voices and bodies joined and worshiping in union with the almighty beat.
That sounds a but overly grandiose, we admit, but at the time, that's not precisely what happened. We know for a fact not everyone walked of that field impressed -- but as far as our internal monologue is concerned, the show has only grown in its impact the months since then. When we see video of the performance, something in our chest tightens and we feel nostalgia for a time far further gone than a single month, and I realize that Daft Punk did do something incredibly special with their performance. Luckily a CD representative of the tour was released, and even though the performance was taped in Paris, the gatefold photo is of the Chicago crowd umbrellaed by the city's skyline, so we can just prop that up and pretend we are there, in that moment, all over again.
In the end, all attempts to make empirical sense of an event that truly touches one are doomed to fail, and why would one want to strip away all of the mysticism surrounding such an event in the fist place? We've grown used to hearing the music of thousands of bands, and watching their performances, and dissecting everything involved with it in an attempt to make sense of the experience for people that weren't there, or haven't heard what we've heard, yet. Every once in a while it's a relief to encounter something that can take those filters, decimate them, and allow something unadulterated, and possibly mythical, past the gates.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
I didn't like Daft Punk until I saw them at Lolla. I still don't really care for One More Time, b/c it's been done to death, but their live show is amazing. I also bought Alive 2007 and it's f'ing great.
The kicker to that show was that LCD Soundsystem was like the opening band. As soon as LCD ended Daft started. I agree it was one hell of a couple of hours. People that never lift a foot off the ground were dancing all over the place.
i agree with everything about this post. people that didn't see daft punk (i saw them here in seattle) don't get what all of the hype is, and i'm sure they think we're all collectively insane, but you've summed it all up nicely. the "show" was an entire experience, and my enthusiasm for it has yet to wane.
Agree about LCD being the opening act. When Murphy told everyone to go south and pointed towards the mainstage, the theme to Close Encounters started playing and everyone started running across Hutchinson Field towards the pyramid it felt very surreal, like a Roswell crash in the heart of Chicago.
that was a great show!
I'm with Bill V. I NEVER dance in public and could, in fact, have counted on two fingers how many times I had actually danced at a show.
Now I can use three fingers! Their performance was seriously the highlight of the whole weekend for me. And to think I had never really listened to any of their non-single music before that night...
I agree 100% Tankboy. That show was phenomenal in every sense of the word. Quite a few times I stood there in awe thinking "I wish me Mom could see this, because there's no way I will ever be able to explain it."
Alive 2007 almost makes up for not being able to do it all over again.