It all starts before they even come on stage. 'A Moment Apart' comes in to satellites and other space imagery onscreen. The movement of the song between dense, grand textures and solo piano starts the set on a majestic note right away; how can you not be excited for the entrance of the musicians themselves? Already the idea of 'out of this world' is placed in our minds. As the song draws to a close, they come out with arms up in the air, drumsticks to the sky, everyone is cheering. The intensity builds up until they bring down the sticks hard on the drums and we move into the next number. 'Bloom' is one of my favourite tracks, and although its appearance is short-lived, it maintains the grandeur already set up while bringing in the euphoric ambience and blending of genres I associate with Odesza, with the Bollywood sample and heavily reverbed, single note vocals in the chorus.
After this, it's time to bring in a crowdpleaser. 'White Lies' becomes the first track where everyone can sing along, and we sure did. I really noticed how heightened that sense of joint happiness you get at gigs was that night; everyone would feel the drop together, dance on each other, feeling the joy. The drop in this song is soothingly emotive, it's not a heavy transition or bass kick-in, but the chords are lovely and the stutter effects add to it. 'All We Need' and 'Show Me' hold up the happy vibes, Harrison and Clayton keep it up with the drums, emphasising the live performance aspect. 'Say My Name' gets the crowd going again, as if we've had a moment to rest, and the visuals here centred around an ink blot drawing, shimmering and melting between various pastel colourings as the song continued. It was beautiful and drew your attention into centre stage, as if the music wasn't enough for this.
After this initial barrage of some of their best work, they dropped in some kind of remix of the 1960's 'Locomotion' which was so random I'm still not quite sure how it worked, but it definitely did. It was a nice retreat from the overall ethereal sound, but mixed in nicely enough that it didn't just sound wrong. This is what I meant when I went to see Bicep about dropping in just a track or two that no-one could expect, it just refreshes the atmosphere. Anyway, this was followed by 'Late Night', without a doubt one of my favourite moments. This song live is just amazing, all I could think was that I had to see it again already. It has grandeur, but you dance shamelessly like no one is watching, it's got joy and melancholy, and the visuals were incredible. These deep purple shots of city-scapes and streets rushed by as if we were all flying on some ship. Here's a jokes clip of me going 'WHEYYY' at one of the drops - despite trying to get a clear clip for the archive, I just couldn't stop myself.
'IPlayYouListen' brought some classic vibes from their older work. It makes me realise that I always think 'In Return' surpasses everything else by far, but I'm totally wrong, all of their work stays consistently brilliant and on brand. More fantastic visuals here, with chaotic, crimson fire bursting out of the screens. I should say, their use of block colours in the light show was key to the performance; they use it to transition between the different tones of the set and most of the songs fit into a set colour scheme. 'Show Me' had deep blues, 'Late Night' of course had this futuristic purple, and red was held through from this track straight into their 'One Day They'll Know' remix, with the images turning into darker, thicker magma explosions.
After 'Boy' came 'Higher Ground' and I've said it already but it's just pure euphoria. The instrumentation is so uplifting you just feel like this sonic cloud is carrying you up in the sky. We move into the bright warmth summer-lit oranges and the iconic Odesza silhouettes appear on stage. I really like the transition visually from this to the next song, 'La Ciudad'. From this first human image, we then see these giant, anthropoid creatures stepping over vast stretches of land. We effortlessly move back to grandeur, and with flashes of strobes as the heavy, slow drum beats strike down, I remember the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end, particularly towards the end where the intensity reaches climax. As usual, there's not even any time to take it all in, and the lavender bubbles of 'Divide' passes us into a remix of 'Divinity' by Porter Robinson. It's nice to see another cover, and I a d o r e this song. I believe Odesza have two different styles for their own music and when they produce a remix of another artist, and it was great to see both in direct comparison in concert.
Following this, then, with 'Line of Sight' was a perfect lead up to another huge hit. There was a noticeable mood shift here, with the screens playing dark, drifting waves, and much of the song taking a slower tone of quiet reflection. The ending really left me silent and I think I cried here (lol), as the 'help me out, don't let me down, I can learn from you' section starts. Powerful, bringing back loads of old emotions, it felt like an acute session of catharsis. Afterwards, they played a VIP remix of 'Memories That You Call' which for some reason I've never heard before, but it takes quite a marching tone at some points, which was magnified by the incredible onstage brass. This futuristic car played on the screens and it had this bizarreness to it that mirrored the intermingling of genres and sounds in the music. Next was 'Keep Her Close', 'If There's Time' had a mad drop, and the brass was great again, this time to create a warm orange ambience, and 'Across The Room' incorporated Roman imagery with some grand marble pillars and statues. It also had a nice singalong back and forth moment with the crowd and Odesza with the opening hook.
Then came 'Loyal' which you could tell was highly anticipated. Right, I was really disappointed when this came out, for their first release in a long time I just thought it could have been made by someone else, it was missing their unique flair, but my friend and I both agreed that it had a lot of live potential. We weren't wrong. The theme here was RED, as you'd expect, and with live drums it was just incredible. With so much anticipation for it as well, it was a jokes over-the-top reaction in the crowd and it made the hype so dramatic, I was creasing at how many people were going mental. It's still not high on my list of their work, but I rate it a lot more now, and as it reminds me of the live show I have great associations. They followed this with 'Don't Stop' and 'Falls' - both peng.
They let us know that we've reached the last song of the set and I can't believe it's almost over. Scrap that, I can't believe I didn't realise this song hadn't played yet. As the first few bouncing chords of 'Sun Models' rolled in, my body flooded with excitement, I was gassed, trying to sing the high-pitched and heavily altered vocal line, with no words, probably annoying everyone around me. They gave us a live edit, with a fantastic drop and it was so fun to dance to. Sun spells shimmered across the stage, bringing us into yellow final moments. Of course, it wasn't the final moments, and the encore they gave us absolutely changed everything. I don't know if you've ever seen a live performance of the VIP remix of 'It's Only', online or in person, but you've got to. I feel lucky that I got to witness it in person. Two more drums came onstage to form four (in America I'm pretty sure they have a whole drumline), and the colour focus becomes a dramatic white. The beginning of the song is lovely and sets the ambience, but the second half just blew my mind. As the 'it's only love' sample plays every four bars, the chords rise up gradually in this elated euphony, higher and higher, it's like the heavens opening up; the stage flashes white and white and white, the drums reecho all around the hall, and in my head all of Brixton. I couldn't even dance, I just had to stand there, mouth open. If I felt the hairs on the back of my head before, every inch of my skin was in awe at this. All dramatic, I know, but I don't care, it was that good.
So, I was impressed already at how much they managed to pack into the gig. The setlist is huge, but the songs were mixed together well and the order was thought out well that it prevented it from feeling rushed. I haven't been able to stop feeling like I need to see them again which I think is the ultimate sign of a good concert. Honestly, 10/10, I was blown away.
