Photo by James, via WikiMedia Commons
Diego Saldaña -Rojas / Opinion Director
Before June 27th I had only heard a few of New York duo Phantogram’s tracks. I knew a few friends were fans and promised me that night at Grand Central- they lied.
It was a mind blowing show.
The second the stage hands came on to prepare for Phantogram to come on stage, the crowds began to get restless. The tight spaces became even tighter and the smell of cigarettes began to fill the air.
Darkness fell and within minutes guitarist Josh Carter and vocalist Sarah Barthel emerged from stage right to a deafening roar of applause. The decibels only went up after the New York natives started with “Nothing but trouble.” I swore I was going to have a seizure with the number of lights going off at once.
The crowd responded with energy that powered the entire performance. Carter and Barthel continued hammering out jams like “ Don’t Move,” “Mouth full of Diamonds,” The day you died.”
A most memorable moment was when Berthel climbed atop an equipment crate, wrapped herself in a glittering golden blanket and performed “Bill Murray”
She softly swayed from side to side with Carter strumming and singing directly in front of her. The yellow stage light formed a pyramid cage around her. A definite change of pace from the intensity they demonstrated with earlier songs in the set.
They closed with their hit “When I’m small,” to which afterwards Berthel and Carter were met with a roar of applause and praise. The crowd was so loud that Barthel jokingly told them they couldn’t play if everyone was that loud.
Her pleas did little to quell the overly-hyped crowd. They performed an encore of “Mouthful of Diamonds” and “Celebrating Nothing.” her spent voice laugh and thanked the crowd once again.
Out of the 60 or so records I own only two or three are electronic music. My collection will now have Voices and Eyelid Movement as well as any EP of theirs I can get my hands on.
Because of shows like this, the indie music scene in Miami has been solidified once again.
diego.saldana@fiusm.com
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