Phantogram + Bad Things | Live Concert Review | The Beacham Orlando | June 27 2014

by Mitch Foster • July 10, 2014

Phantogram’s epic display of visual aesthetics were unmatched to any performance I’ve seen this year. Their lighting technician is the Shaun White of live visualizations. As superb as the lighting was, the real fascinating factor was how well the lights synched up with the sounds flooding from the speakers. I’ve talked about how poor the sound is at The Beacham before, but tonight, perhaps because of the satisfaction in my sense of sight, the sound actually seemed up to par, enhancing the entire Phantogram experience.

There’s been a lot of synthrock & synthpop bands mushrooming lately. The opening band Bad Things, although categorized as the former, are a different kind of ‘shroom altogether. The crescendo at the beginning of their lead single “Anybody” put an immediate interest in my ears. The male/female vocal dynamics provide perfect layers of harmonies and passionate sing-alongs are offered in the choruses.

“Dude, Bad Things fucking rules.” Was the eye-opening consensus of the night. They’re quite an eclectic bunch – The lead singer has his eye lids tattooed, their female drummer/vocalist, positioned at the front of the stage, is hard to take your eyes off of, their bassist used to be in Augustana making him no stranger to rock, oh, and mother-fucking Shaun White, professional snowboarder and skateboarder is their guitar player! Yes, for real.

The anthemic chorus presented in “Caught Inside” is such a fulfilling successor to the gender-alternating call-and-response vocal patterns in the pre-chorus. I lifted up onto my toes and raised a hand toward the ceiling and I swayed back to front singing along. The lead singer Davis shook his hands like they were on fire while he bounced around making it difficult to unglue your eyes from him. He’s a very well fitted frontman for the group. Check out the Official Video for “Caught Inside” by Bad Things below.

While most listeners are just being introduced to the two above singles from Bad Things’ debut self-titled album, I actually found a lot of Saturday-night, drive-worthy rock and roll songs to air drum to while singing along to Lena and Davis’ clever, often self-loathful, bitter lyrics (which I fucking love). I strongly recommend you give their new album at least a listen. There’s a couple bonus tracks on Spotify, “John Wayne” is a notable mention. I’ll be paying attention to this record for a while to say the least. Hopefully they release a vinyl version soon. Here’s a shitty pic:

“Wham, Bam, Phantogram!” Dainon said to me. Well, holy shit, he was right. While Set It Off was the most fascinating performance of the year, Phantogram was certainly the most visually stimulating performance of 2014 thus far. Right up there with Outkast.

Phantogram forcefully took control of the audience at The Beacham in Orlando one sense at a time. First the sense of sight with their elaborate lighting. Next, the sense of audition with their pounding, penetrative beats. Then my sense of touch, making my hairs stand on end while my body oscillated. My senses of taste and smell were occupied by a firmly grasped Stella Artois.

When Sarah and her partner-in-stage Josh broke into their single “Black Out Days” it was as if the audience were made entirely of marionette puppets and Phantogram controlled the delicate strings attached to our wooden arms, lifting them all towards the disco balls above. The lights rocked against the audience in sequence with Sarah’s puppeteer arm stretched out toward us dropping to the beat. Not sure what I mean? Watch the video I caught of it on the Shows I Go To Instagram:

Phantogram offers splendid music to hang out alone to. It’s often nice to hang out solo. I grew up alone and I appreciate my alone time a lot. Not to mention, I think I’m pretty fucking good company to myself. Well, myself and usually some fine whiskey or cheap red wine.

The first time I had the chance to listen to the new Phantogram album Voices, was while I was jogging around Lake Eola Park in downtown Orlando. It had been a few weeks since I’d gotten off my ass and exercised. I was dreading it because the first time back is always the most difficult. However, Voices is a surprisingly motivational album. It actually felt good to progress my body onward while I carefully listened and took in the beauty of life flourishing around me. I was happy. With everything.

Some may say “this new album is growing on me.” But it’s not growing on me at all – I’m completely fucking sold on it. I mean, c’mon, in the mix of upbeat electrorock there’s a beautifully depressing song called “Bill Murray” on it! How can you go wrong with a song named after the greatest man in comedy/the world? Check out this beautiful, intimate live performance of “Bill Murray” I found:

Sarah suited up and became “a human disco ball,” as Lindsay coined in her Phantogram Live Photos Post, during the song “Bill Murray.” Sarah was dressed in a sparkling gold, full body robe as she lifted toward the sky on a possibly mechanical pedestal. It was pretty badass. Here’s an awesome pic Lindsay took:

The alluring Sarah Barthel is a phenomenal performer and strong front women. I sincerely appreciate anyone who displays such high energy in their live performance. Those looks she gives behind her in-key dreamy vocals are enough to swoon a man (or woman). Swoon. But don’t get your hopes up, rumor has it she’s dating Shaun White, according to this article. Doesn’t mean you can’t help but “Fall In Love” with her while watching this video though:

Phantogram played everything Orlando wanted – “Fall In Love,” “Don’t Move,” and “Mouthful of Diamonds” to name a few. They closed their set in irony with “Celebrating Nothing” to a sold out crowd. Upon speaking with several attendees and friends we all concurred “epic” was an appropriate description for the evenings performance. Thank you Phantogram, for the “epic” night and the white spots I still see when I close my eyes.

Check out Lindsay’s post with Phantogram Live Concert Photos >