M83 & The LA Philharmonic Just Played My Swan Song

When I look at my notes from this past weekend's M83 show words like sparkly and ethereal are the first ones that I notice. Note to self: Those are lame, overused words to describe music. A one-off gig at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles' newest architectural landmark, brought M83 aka Anthony Gonzalez, his laptop and synthesizer together with the Los Angeles Philharmonic' like indie rockers the Decemberists and Grizzly Bear before him. Divided into three parts, the show - sold out and heavily talked up in indie zines and radio stations in the week leading up - started off with a mini M83 solo set. The entire concert hall, with not one bad seat in the house, seemed to transform itself into Gonzalez's bedroom. Sitting in the pitch black and with only a lone blue spotlight at center stage it felt like Gonzalez was there alone playing his Sigur Ros meets Microsoft Vista music, for himself only.

The acoustics in this place were so amazing, forget hearing a pin drop, you could hear people getting text messages on the phones stored in their pockets and purses. Gonzales solo set mostly sampled from 2007's "Digital Shades Volume 1." Less layered than his most recent and acclaimed album "Saturdays = Youth" it created a chilled out mood that would last throughout the evening and some woudl complain was a little too chill in fact.

But this wasn't Gonzales' place. Nor was it some sticky floored, dive of a rock venue, This was the LA Philharmonic's casa. And we were soon reminded of this after Gonzales walked off stage, quite gentlemanly, and every orchestra player with a string instrument crept into their seat. Led by conductor Julian Kuerti, the second set showed the philharmonic's expertise as they flowed through Arvo Pärt's "Fratres" - where quick strings were interrupted by timpanui reverberations. The full orchestra showed up for Claude Debussy's turn-of-the-20th century composition La Mer (The Sea). Arranged in three parts - "De l' aube à midi sur la mer" (From dawn to noon in the sea), "Jeux de vagues" (Play of the waves) and" Dialogue du vent et de la mer" (Dialogue of the wind and the sea) - the orchestra bored the younger crowd. During the intermission I bummed a cigarette from two doe-eyed Silver Lakers who told me they thought it was "too mellow" and wanted to see more M83. Dude, stop listening to Devandra Banhart and give classical music a chance.

Whatever disappointments there might have been, they were obliterated with the third part, the marriage - Gonzalez and the LA Philharmonic.

Best described it sounded like music that could be played at a wedding, at a funeral, at any type of celebration or non-celebration for that matter. The dynamics alone of the orchestra, one moment soft and subtle, the next so loud you thought you were being attacked by the violin bows - made you feel like you were floating. Add to that chants provided by an all chick choir, you might have laid yourself down in a casket and listened to your own swan song. The most noticeable song of the evening was Before The Dawn's "Moonchild" with aaaahhhs and oooohhhs and reverb that would have made My Morning Jacket shit themselves. Anotehr Defore the Dawn Heels us gem "Lower Your Eyelids To Die with the Sun" was also thrown in there. At moments the music sounded like version 2.0 of the alien space jam from Encounters of the Third Kind. Other times it sounded like nothing because the strings and Gonzalez's synthesizer left you so spaced out in your own thoughts until the steady beat of the timpani brought you back.

If it's any indication of my take on the evening I came home at 3AM and downloaded every M83 album I didn't own on iTunes.