In 2009, Phoenix released arguably one of the best albums of the year. Playing their first show of the new year as part of the Cultural Olympiad, they certainly did not disappoint and confirmed that their talent is able to transcend the recording studio. As the crowd waited and more and more audience members began making their way to the front of the stage, the opening keys of "Lisztomania" rang in complete darkness. The instantly recognizable song ignited the crowd's already intense excitement and began the dance mayhem as they led into the songs "Long Distance Call" and "Lasso".
Initially I was worried as to how The Orpheum would serve as a venue for the band. Anytime you're out dancing and their song comes on the crowd is guaranteed to go nuts. So bringing their songs that create mayhem on the dance floor to a venue of reserved seating was a little worrisome. However, the crowd didn't care and the security guards by the stage didn't stop us from enjoying the show. During their encore I went back to my seat to enjoy the show from a different perspective and saw that an audience member managed to get up on stage. He began pumping his fists in the air as a sign of victory, and within two minutes the stage became flooded with people. I admired what was going on and said to my boyfriend, "I want to be there!" He grabbed my hand and led me all the way from row 23, through the crowd in the aisles, up onto the stage where I found myself dancing right beside the guitarist. We managed to find a couple of our other friends amongst the chaos as Phoenix closed the night with "1901". Dancing and singing "hey hey hey hey hey hey hey!" at the top of our lungs with the band rather than off of a DJ's laptop was simply amazing.
I could go on and on about the show but I'm going to end it here. If you were at the show then I hope you had just as great of an experience as my friends and I did. And if you weren't able to attend then I hope these photos at least somewhat capture the essence of what I have been trying to describe.
