With M83 still touring on their breakthrough double album, Hurry Up We’re Dreaming, and a year long assault by singles like “Steve McQueen” and the ubiquitous “Midnight City” I’ll admit I wasn’t giddy like a school girl to see the band – especially since I saw M83 at the Beacham last November. So I brought my 12 year-old niece to the show and she was totally stoked.
See the full review on Tampa’s music blog, Suburban Apologist
Sun Airways:
M83:
Built to Spill‘s sound always reminded me of Dinosaur Jr. meets Modest Mouse with a propensity to use crushing guitar interspersed with jangly riffs and a drunken, sad humanist perspective. They also have the same northwestern vibe that MM does with a low-fi approach to live shows that puts an emphasis wholly on the musical performance and no matter the quality of the show it is always riddled with long pauses, self tuning of guitars, and constant muttering complaints about the sound and lighting. It’s the same “I don’t give a fuck” attitude that has the band looking like they rolled out of bed in their clothes with a Sunday morning hangover and took the stage.
Last night at The Social was no exception. In fact the lighting and sound dissatisfaction hit epic proportions as the band warmed up and settled into a short-ish but nicely mixed set. The lights lacked any dynamics – either being off or on. When the lights were on the band complained about the brightness. Then the lights were turned off. After two songs in near darkness BTS was like, “WTF?” It seemed like a passive-aggressive revenge being exacted on the band for an unknown cause. Constant calls from various band members to adjust volume and lighting led to some jabs about the competency of the lighting and sound techs. At one point Doug Martsch tried to find an audience member that could work the lights.
Does anyone know what happened here? Let me know below.
Robbed of the support given by good lighting the band thundered through their setlist and ended their first set with a rousing “Carry the Zero.” A 3-song encore was punctuated by a soaring 20-minute space jam of “Broken Chairs.”
“Goin’ Against Your Mind”
“Broken Chairs”