I first caught Air‘s Moon Safari tour back in August at Oslo’s Oya Festival, where they were a last-minute substitution for The Smile, who had to drop out just a few weeks before the fest. They they sounded fantastic, and while their unique stage set, playing within a magical white rectangle lined with LED screens, did not reach its full potential thanks to a late afternoon slot, it was still impressive.
Having now seen the show in a proper dark theater (NYC’s Beacon Theatre on Monday, their first of two nights there), I think it is a crime to see it under any other circumstances. This is the most transfixing, transportive, spectacular, fully realized show — both sight and sound — I have seen since Massive Attack’s Mezzanine XXI tour in 2019. That box they play in, perhaps a nod to the artwork of 10,000 Hz Legend, really does seem like magic and made for what seemed like a nonstop parade of holy shit moments for me.
The first set was playing Moon Safari, their 1998 debut album, in full. Jean-Benoît Dunckel, Nicolas Godin and drummer Louis Delorme boarded their craft, which initially looked like something out of 2001: A Space Odyssey, with a gleaming white interior, matching their white outfits and white instruments. But as soon as they started playing “La femme d’argent,” it went dark with beams of light tracing the corners, and then, as if raising the shades, the dark lifted to what to me seemed like playing close to the sun must be like. The interior then turned into three panels and, as the song escaped its studio version into wilder rock territory (thanks in part to Delorme’s Keith Moon-style fills) it was then you realized that these LED screens were also translucent, allowing strobes to be fired from behind, but they could also work like mirrors. Air used them in many different ways — some playful, some beautiful, some blinding — as the show progressed.
For “Sexy Boy,” the interior turned cobalt blue, heavy on the strobes; on “Talisman” it glowed lava red as the floor filled with fog; for “Kelly Watch the Stars,” the box became a Pong arcade game (a la the song’s original video); there were fireworks for “You Make It Easy”; “New Star in the Sky” made it seem like they were playing within a multicolored starfield of a distant galaxy; and “Ce matin‐là” was like a gorgeous sunrise as warm light flooded around the box.
The show sounded amazing, too, presented in “Sphere Immersive Sound,” which I don’t fully know what it is but am guessing it’s some of the same technology used at Las Vegas’ Sphere. All those analogue synths, the groovy basslines, the vocoders, they all just filled up the room. Most songs were played near album perfect but they also weren’t beholden to the arrangements. For “All I Need,” one of two Moon Safari songs to feature singer Beth Hirsch, they chose to do a dubby version that splits the difference from its earlier “Les professionnels” incarnation from the Premiers Symptômes EP.
Moon Safari was only half the show, though, and their second set pulled from the rest of their discography, opening with 10 000 Hz Legend‘s “Radian,” which was an even more intense sunrise, and then a trio of songs from Talkie Walkie: “Venus” (the box turned into a spacecraft interior), “Cherry Blossom Girl,” and the prog odyssey of “Run” that grew as thunderous as the storm clouds that enveloped them on the LEDs.
Then we got a surprise: Phoenix‘s Thomas Mars came out to sing “Playground Love” from The Virgin Suicides soundtrack. (Video of that below.) They sounded fantastic and the crowd was clearly excited, and at any other show this would have been the highlight. But for me it didn’t even make the top five moment. This did though: “Don’t Be Light” from 10 000 Hz Legend, which was presented as a dazzling, retina-searing psychedelic journey that included giant lips mouthing the song’s pitched down vocals, crescendoing in red strobes before fading out as their magical box turned back to white with AIR emblazoned across the back, closing out the main set.
Air returned for two more songs, which were also highlights: the delicate “Alone in Kyoto,” which had them weightless in another starfield, and finally the epic, Kraftwerkian “Electronic Performers,” featuring icy digital sinew and webbing, plus more fog and then bright white strobes as the strings swelled. This had the audience on their feet for the only time during the show. (This is not a criticism; the Moon Safari tour is definitely a sit back and take it all in extravaganza). The song ended, hard cut to black, and the white stage returned to thunderous applause as the band took their bows.
This was about as close to perfect as I could imagine. Air may be technically trading on nostalgia, but they’ve made it feel like the future.
Check out photos from the show by Toby Tenenbaum, along with the setlist, below.
Judging by Setlist.fm, Air had the same show on Tuesday night, including an appearance from Thomas Mars. If you can’t make this tour, you can still experience it as one of their shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall was shot for ARTE’s concert series, and you can watch full video of that below.
SETLIST: Air @ Beacon Theatre 10/21/2024
La femme d’argent
Sexy Boy
All I Need
Kelly Watch the Stars
Talisman
Remember
You Make It Easy
Ce matin‐là
New Star in the Sky (Chanson pour Solal)
Le voyage de Pénélope
Set 2:
Radian
Venus
Cherry Blossom Girl
Run
Playground Love w/ Thomas Mars
Don’t Be Light
Encore:
Alone in Kyoto
Electronic Performers