AIR & Kate Havnevik @ First Avenue

Air @ First Ave.
05.02.07

The wonderful French band Air came to First Ave on Wednesday night, fresh off a great performance at Coachella over the weekend(although their set at the festival started 40 minutes late, causing most to give up on them-tonight they started on-time, 10:30 on the dot), delivering a solid set of their distinct Parisian Pop soundscapes to a mostly full Mainroom. Air’s music has always caused me to think of traveling, airplanes, and Europe, and last night was no exception. Their sound really allows space for the listener to get lost, and that’s a wonderful thing. At the surface, their songs don’t have much depth to them, with mostly meaningless lyrics, very little hooks to draw you in, and a repetition that can get tiresome at times. But their music is very intricate and soothing, allowing the listener to be transported anywhere they wish on the waves of sound flowing over the room. They wandered in with the first notes of ‘Radian’ already playing in loops, dressed resplendently, as always. The set lagged a little at the start for me, with new songs ‘Once Upon A Time’ and ‘Napalm Love’ failing to reach anything memorable, but picked up with ‘Talisman’ from ‘Moon Safari’ and a fantastic version of ‘People In The City’ followed shortly after. And the waves of sound kept crashing, with a terrific performance of ‘Don’t Be Light’ followed quickly by ‘Kelly Watch The Stars’. I was slightly disappointed with their lighting and stage show, since the other two times I’ve seen them, they have paid such close attention to this detail. But last night the stage was lit from behind with a minimal net of lights that didn’t really add anything to the ambience, and didn’t really blend well with the songs at times. But it’s never really been about the visual with Air, it’s always about the sound. The encore soon followed, with the obligatory performance of ‘Sexy Boy,’ which got the crowd as close to dancing as they were going to get this evening, and they closed out their set with a wonderfully upbeat and extended ‘La Femme d’Argent.’ For me, lyrics have always been what draws me deep into the music I listen to, however, it’s nice to have a purely aural experience that doesn’t depend on lyrics to convey the feelings and emotion in the song, just sound -and what sublime sounds they treated us to. Merci beaucoup, Nicolas and Jean-Benoit.

Setlist:

Radian
Venus
Once Upon A Time
Napalm Love
Talisman
Mer Du Japon
Run
Cherry Blossom Girl
Remember
People In The City
Photograph
Don’t Be Light
Kelly Watch The Stars

Encore:
J’ai Dormi Sous L’eau
Sexy Boy
La Femme d’Argent


Erik T.