Photos and Review by: Catrina Maxwell of CatMax Photography, LLC
As you walked into the Tabernacle you could feel the excitment of the sold out crowd. Every inch of this venue was packed. We were able to score a seat on the very top level of the Tabernacle. I had never sat that high up in this venue. It felt as if you were almost over the top of the stage looking down. Phoenix opened the show with a song off their new album Bankrupt! called “Entertainment”. The crowd lit up with the stage and began to sing along and dance to each song the band threw out to them. After a few songs they kicked into “Love Like A Sunset”. Towards the end of the song, Thomas Mars (lead vocals) laid down on the the stage with his head on the monitors looking very comfortable as the band kicked into a long electronic solo. The venue lit up and it suddenly felt like you were at a rave. There wasn’t one person sitting in their seats, there was too much energy filling the room for that. When they kicked into 1901 Thomas stepped out into the first couple rows and started singing the lyrics with the crowd.
Once the band finished 1901, they said “goodnight” and walked off the stage, but the excited crowd was not alright with that. They demanded the band come back out by clapping and chanting “Phoenix, Phoenix!”. Eventually Thomas and Laurent Brancowitz (guitar) returned to the stage and performed an acoustic version of Countdown. The encore also included Rome as the final song of the night where Thomas jumped out and crowd surfed to the soundboard saying thank you over the mic. Once he arrived back to the stage a fan had given him a French flag so he threw his mic down and draped it over his mic stand. If you have never been to a Phoenix show you really need to experience this excitement; I don’t think one person left the Tabernacle last night dissatisfied.
