Most people I told about this gig had never heard of Phoenix. ‘Synthy French good stuff’ was the tag line I offered up to them, but in reality, this half-hearted description was based purely upon their fifth and most recent album, 'Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix', and most of my knowledge of that was garnered in the past two weeks of frantic listening since my friend persuaded me to join her. Thus, I had mixed expectations upon arriving at the O2 Academy in Brixton last night. I expected it to be moderately busy, a bo-ho indie affair with black-rimmed spectacles galore, a solid gig with little in the way of showmanship, dominated by fuzzy soft synths.

Wow, was I wrong. The venue was sold out, and we waited in line for half an hour to pick up our tickets. After making our way into the building the only seats available for 5 people were right up in the gods. Looking around me, instead of the artsy crowd I expected to see, there were two middle aged women in front, one wearing a Phoenix t-shirt and performing what can be only described as enthusiastic dance moves. She was not alone in that however, as the crowd was overwhelming eager in responding to every whim of the lead singer, Thomas Mars, defeating the Nazi-like security intent on getting everyone to ‘SIT DOWN!’, accompanied by exaggerated hand gestures. At one point I think I even heard Mars suggest that London was a better crowd than Paris, which is an interesting comment, especially when the highest chart position reached by Wolfgang in France in 17, compared with 54 in the UK.

This pandering to crowd was received in good spirit however, and on whole Phoenix put on a professional, slick show. The sound quality was excellent, and live a much rockier, rhythmic edge to their tracks was emphasised, with excellent drumming from Thomas Hedlund, which I truly did not expect from a group that started off as the backing band for Air. Some critics have been a bit snippy about Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, claiming that it’s a failed attempt for Phoenix to roughen up their sound with a rockier edge. Given my limited knowledge of their prior work, I am not best qualified to make a judgement on that, but within the four-walls of the Brixton Academy, Phoenix were rock-stars.

Rachael Deal

Member of the music team @ Pulse