daft punk LA sports arena 7/21/07

Review: Daft Punk / Ratatat / Sebastian & Kavinsky
July 21, 2007 Los Angeles Sports Arena

Well now that I’m finally back to writing after a hectic weekend, lets talk about Daft Punk. First of all the concert was completely sold out – the whole place packed and a giant sweat box. There really isn’t any reason to call it a concert, it was more like the biggest dance party I’ve ever been too. I think probably like 15,000 people or so… 90% of them dancing. I was only able to get concourse tickets and it was amazing to just watch the people on the floor always moving. Everybody nodding their head right fist pumping. My view as you can tell from the terrible treo pic above that I could see practically everything. Direct angle view of the stage and screen closest to me plus a view of all that was happening on the floor. It was just a sea of people moving and swaying… lighters, cell phones, glow sticks all in the air simultaneously to the beat.

The intensity of the show grew song by song as well the visualizations. They controlled each one of our movements so methodically through lights and sounds. The line of lights above the floor (pictured above) blew my mind and everybody else’s when they first turned on. It was so unexpected and I had never seen anything like that before. I can’t even describe the stage to you… everything was an LCD screen or LED light of some sort.

To be honest… I’m at a loss for words. What I’m thinking and feeling about the show is far beyond what I’ve ever experienced at a concert before. LAist has a great review you can read here. [vids on youtube here]

As I was sitting in the parking lot after the show with friends we dissected the night and how amazing that hour and a half was. One of the main things that made our heads explode was the songs. They didn’t play any one of their tracks in any way you have ever heard it. They were constantly mixing 2,3,4 songs together to create completely new tracks all together that got everybody into a sweaty dance rager.

So intense. So amazing.
It’ll be hard to see a concert as sick as this was ever again.

Lets talk about Ratatat and Sebastian & Kavinsky for just a few sentences.
Ratatat was absolutely sick. They played all the good songs like my personal favorite “El Pico” and an awesome version of “Gettysburg.” They had some artsy videos running in the background that were synced with the music. Most notable was the perspective of you inside a car driving and a dude on the passenger side outside the car that smashes the front window in with a bat. Perfectly in sync with the beat that just made me want to rage more. Sebastian & Kavinsky are some really talented dj’s. They got the crowd dancing in between sets with some unique mixes.

In closing… one of the most amazing experiences… I should go pickup their new dvd and relive the times.