James Yuill and Phoenix, London Roundhouse

Phoenix

The iTunes Festival had returned, and for the price of a ‘like’, you too can be subjected to the smooth, double screened, camera-heavy experience of a gig sponsored by Steve Jobs. You even get a voucher for 10 free songs at the end of it (except mine fell out of my pocket on the tube!) The Roundhouse is such a nice little venue that it’s a bit jarring to see it covered in red and black posters, although one shouldn’t be sniffy about such things – pretty sure James Yuill isn’t too upset to be playing to a packed out crowd of people whose usage of the Internet normally extends only as far as Facebook.

The man himself, a foppish, bespectacled blonde sporting grey suit and tie (after a hard day’s work at Aviva) opens with a spritely greeting and launches into a set comprising mainly bangers from his new album, Movement In A Storm. James Yuill is even easier to enjoy in a live setting than on record – quite apart from anything else he reaches Chris Martin-esque levels of politeness and affability. Despite having the rather unhelpful ‘folktronica’ bandied about wherever he goes, Yuill basically makes great dance music. Far from the Hebden/Tunng-ish experiments one would expect from a ‘folktronic’ artist, he provides samples from (mostly) live instruments, synths and a beat to create moments of quiet contemplation (á la Gibbard/Dntel duo, The Postal Service) mixed in with a totally blissed-out dance vibe (á la GREAT). Some of the drops work well combined with the fairly expensive looking coloured strobe behind him, and the choruses come down particularly hard. Unfortunately though, one of the leads from his Mac falls out during the climax of the final song.

Phoenix however, are a live band dependable enough to set your watch by, consummate, note-perfect, genial and snappily dressed. A further three members supplement the four staples on tour, the stand out of which is drummer, Thomas Hedlund, who spends at least 12 songs (I didn’t count) standing up, panting and beating the drums like that furry guy from Doctor Teeth And The Electric Mayhem. Plus, he’s grown a brilliant moustache – get yourself out to see that before he shaves it off again. ‘Rome’ is amazing, ‘Consolation Prizes’ is amazing, ‘Rally’ is amazing, ‘1901’ is amazing. I love them and you do too. Indie pop so modern it could only be French and lyrics so nostalgic they’ll make you tear up. “This is how we do it in Paris,” Thomas Mars informs the crowd. How they do it in Paris, ladies and gents, is DOUBLE TIME CLAPPING, which goes very well and fails to degenerate into the usual mess that occurs when an artist takes it upon himself to try and get an audience to do anything more complicated than dribble beer. Well done audience! Or as they say in France, ‘bonjour’!

No related posts.