Saturday, March 5, 2011

Gig Review - The Chemical Brothers, Vector Arena, Auckland

Nothing like a concert on a school night.

I've never seen the Chemical Brothers before. It seems like where ever I am, they play festivals, which tend to be spendy. But, they played in Auckland, stand alone, so I went with some coworkers.

I was pretty impressed. I had pretty high expectations, and they were fairly well met. We missed the openers in favor or the pub up the road, but the crowd was pretty well alive before the start, with some drone-y music and no lights to keep the mood where it should be.

I went into it a little skeptical of a DJ show in an arena, but they really are the duo that can swing it. I can't think of anyone that uses rock elements in electronic music quite like them. My only real complaint is that there was an encore break. That sort of hurts the mood of what's otherwise a club gig. But I suppose I can't complain as they played Surface to Air at the start of the encore. One of (the?) my favorite CB songs, and I'll never think of it the same.

The visual show really shines too, which it must for an electronic arena gig. I'm sure if you were on drugs, it was freaky as hell. Robots, creepy clowns, great light work, and strobes so bright you could feel the wave of heat near the back of the place.

Setlist below. I made it, but I'm not 100% confident that it's complete. Since everything is mixed together, it's tough to tell sometimes.

Well done. 7.5/10.

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