Gibbard is alive tonight! For playing the same room just over a month ago DCFC certainly doesn’t show it, dawning a fresh mountain man beard and a new dew it’s like a different man fronting the band (except for the fact that Harmer, Walla and McGerr are holding it down tight as ever, those dudes are rock solid and far too often get overlooked.) One has to wonder what it’s like for these gentlemen, is it just them sitting on top of the world? How many shows did they see her growing up here just saying to themselves someday..someday… And look at them now, the most established band on the bill. Veterans of the scene. Harmer seriously looks like he belongs in a metal band, his playing is mesmerize and filled with passion as he throws his bass with each move, tethered to his neck or else it would fly from his hands with every move. The band celebrate their whole catalog leaving no stone unturned even busting out some of the deepest deep cuts, maybe for the hometown crowd… Soul meets body is a giant sing along and they close out with Scientist Studies, a track that in the 8 times I’ve seen them play (4 of them this year alone) I’ve never heard. Simply put, brilliant. A hometown triumph.

Cage the elephant are a ball of energy, can’t even get through 3 songs without stage diving and probably the longest lead singer crowd surf this place has seen in a minute. The most “rockin” band on the bill the crowd is responding with full force, moshing and jumping and showing their appreciation by sweating it out. They’ve come a long way since their first Seattle show, Clearly more comfortable now in those converse as they own the show playing a mixed batch of tunes from both their enormous debute and the latest juggernaut “Thank You, Happy Birthday”. Grouplave and Young The Giant seem to be just as into it as they stand next to me head nodding while I type this.

Mark foster is an animal, looking like beethoven as he pounds the keys of his piano. Shaking and seizing every which way. If it’s been a party so far these guys are taking it to the next level, not a single person is standing still and the arena itself is packed to the brim. It’s Fosters first show in the area that isn’t small capacity and likely many peoples first shot at seeing the group. Arrant screams echo as the band runs through a set of total hits peaking with closer Pumped Up Kicks which prompts a full crowd sing along. The tunes drops out and the lights come up and Mark Foster hands it over to the crowd and to say they delivered is an understatement as the end of a full chorus by themselves erupts into an earthshaking cheer as they breakdown into the remix before bringing their energy blasted set to a close.

The cries from the crowd getting enormous as it’s nearly quadrupled in size at this point. Casey Keller doin Young The Giant the solid of introducing them and they take the stage tasked with topping a Cameo from one of seattles favorites and their up to it as frontman Sameer twist and turns and contorts as he strolls from side to side of the stage, tamborine in hand shaking away while the rest of the band perform a cd quality version of Cough Syrup to the crowds bursting point of pleasure. Even the guys are excited to be here, telling the audience to find them in the crowd after their set cuz they’ll be out there.

And she spoke words that would melt in your hand. Two door cinema club is an arena dance party post jamie Moyer introduction (yeah, the former mariner likes his dance rock) for their early twenties the boys are pros by now, packing a powerful and precise punch which likely won’t be seen in venues much smaller than this for long. It’s tough to stand still for more than a second as the little Brits pump through tune after tune. Soft spoken and not a lot to say, they don’t need to talk because the jams speak for themselves. This is the life is a definite is a definite highlight as one of the bands more intense and rare tunes before jumping into crowd pleaser What You Know and closing out by sending the crowd into an absolute frenzy with I Can Talk. We carry on!!

The kick drum booms through Key Arena as Grouplove kick things off at Deck The Hall Ball. Full of energy and incapable of nout bouncing around the stage, Grouplove are certainly not what you’d expect them to be in person. For starters their bassist looks like a younger Gandalf, and the rest of them are dressed like they just stepped off the hippie bus. A short set that serves it’s purpose as the perfect first taste for the evening. Even now there must be a few thousand people here, emotions running high, anxiety for the big acts mixed with the current joy, even in the 200 level you can spot people dancing as you look around. Part of the arena experiece is everyone that you’re here with, that even in hard times we can all come together under one music flag . Grouplove live is the band you always pray is playing your friends party, catchy and infectious but not overbearing. A perfect way to set the mood for the evening.

I’d like to say all is quiet here on the western front at Key Arena, but that just wouldn’t be true. Pre-pro is in full effect, bands are in their dressing rooms, crew members chowing down in catering, I may have even heard a full 15 seconds of Soul Meets Body being soundchecked earlier. All In all DTHB is poised to be a complete success, inside the arena festive lights are hanging from the ceiling, kids outside are bursting with excitement, the day is about to begin. meanwhile here’s a picture of Death Cab Soundchecking… More to come!

The National are late. Not in the sense that someone knocked them up, or they were supposed to be onsage a half hour ago, but the change over between openers Local Natives and our headlining heroes is excessively long. Which about ten minutes before they take the stage we find out is due to backstage warm ups, hang outs, drink ons, and what have you. We know this because it’s all braodcast across the giant backdrop on stage. A live camera image watermarked in the center reads THE NATIONAL as we see the band walk through a door and as it turns out, onto the stage to the sound of cheers and then respectful silence as they open with runaway.

Part of you wonders if it’s difficult for the band to get in the headspace to play such melancholy songs each night but then singer Matt Beringer breaks the ice 2 songs in, cracking jokes about screwed up lyrics and too many rum and cokes. Bloodbuzz Ohio proves it’s worth as a first single early on in the set. It’s funny how a song can hit you so much harder once you’ve heard it once or twice and have 7 people in front of you translating it to your ear drums directly. Intense is an understatement for The National, their music just strikes a chord that I can’t say many other bands know how to play.

Beringer is super chatty tonight, and super drunk. It’s a fun juxtaposition to the songs dark atmosphere. Though as each song becomes more of a battle to remember the words, Beringer becomes increasingly frustrated, peaking with the chorus to swallow Victoria. As he screams the chorus, true emotion bleeding across, his frustration playing to our benefit as the band enter a breakdown culminating in a passionate climax beyond anything you could expect going in. The power of music appearing in front of us. This is where most bands fall apart but instead the national flourish. Perhaps it’s the nature of the source material.

“Conversation 16 into Lemonworld is f-cking epic.” That’s the literal note I wrote to myself after the band blazed through the 2 cuts from their latest (and fantastic) release, High Violet. Proof that some bands still get better over time and not the contrary. Conversations might be the best song of the last 5 years even, but that’s not what this review is here to argue. Some bands are just good. Plain and simple. There’s no describing, no explaining, sometimes you just feel it and understand.

The show draws to a close around an intense version of Terrible Love, people all around transfixed as the full sound of 2 horn players, and dual guitarists fills the sold out Neptune theater, wrapping all of us in a blanket of noise and passion. Before unplugging and ending on the most intimate of notes, an acoustic and microphone-less version of Vanderlyle. The crowd match Beringers vocals as they bid us farewell for the night and the moment is over, and it’s all just another memory of a phenomenal show slipping through our fingers.

Feist stands center stage flanked by a keyboard and a trio of female back up singers. “How come you’re so alone there” her latest single bows it’s head early in the set, the second song in fact but it matters little what song feist is playing, her fragile voice in focus over the scenery of her air tight backing band is a combination that resonates with every member of the seated silent audience. For such a little girl her songs pack a powerful punch. In the back a musician strikes two violins with bows, not playing then just tapping them ever enough to emit the grating sound that pulses throughout the tune, later he goes on to play a number of odd instruments including a music box and the side of a drum, immediately bringing into focus the more complex side of her songs production, perhaps often lost in a commercial mix .

The Moore theaters ancient elegance is a fitting atmosphere for feist, it’s worn architecture bringing a serious tone out, emphasizing the idea of a performance over a show. There is certainly a difference, foo fighters, that’s a show, that’s a spectacle, this is a performance, a concert. Opening act Chilly Gonzales only reinforced that, not only is he her “best friend”, also her producer, song writing collaborator, piano playing world record holder, and one hell of a classical player. Did I mention he also raps? A ridiculous juxtaposition he pulls off well to the delight of the few in the crowd who showed up early enough to catch his set. Black and white distorted images wash the backdrop as she sings her little heart out. Feist may be a solo artist but this performance would be severely impaired by it’s lack of serious back up. Her band is killing it and tonight it sounds phenomenal in here.

She encourages the crowd to sing along with the chorus of Mushaboom, its soft oooo’s resonating throughout the building ohhhhs dream slow the fire out. As everyone starts off timid the first time around, after that the crowd comes in with solid conviction, some clapping and stomping along to the beat. She steps away from the mic to sing with us. Her crowd interaction is fantastic, something she’s apparently known for, somehow managing to get everyone to harmonize. It’s actually pretty impressive, and by pretty impressive I mean really impressive. It makes you feel like a kid again before she launches into another one of her soft beautifully crafted songs. And damn! She’s an impressive little guitar player!

To be honest I showed up to this whole thing to catch Chilly’s set and was only planning on staying for a few songs of Feist but I found myself completely captivated and blown away by just how good she was that I stuck around for the whole thing. Her voice spot on, her excitement for the songs still very much alive (this is after all, her first tour for her new LP Metals), It’s always great to see an artist who truly connects with their songs, and a crowd that connects to the energy the artist gives out. The set finds a lull in the first encore for me, which is quickly replaced by excitement when Chilly returns to the stage for a solo piano performance of “Limit To Your Love” which, for those of you that are thinking “a James Blake cover???!?!!” (guilty) the track was originally penned by Feist and Gonzales, perhaps she said it best “we wrote this one, you’re welcome JB” before standing atop the piano and belting her heart out to end an evening of honesty and excitement. Cross your fingers for a Sasquatch appearance (likely)

For a Sunday night, Neumos is packed. And we’re not talkin, full, we’re talking wall to wall sell out. And the funny thing is, it’s the second sold out show of the night. After the release of M83’s double disc opus “Hurry Up We’re Dreaming”, the already booked tour doubled in size as public response to the album was overwhelming (we ourselves fell in love w/ first single Midnight City and haven’t gone a week without giving it some facetime on Ultrasound since). Which with a chance to reach some of their largest crowds ever, explains why the band don’t leave anything to the imagination, taking the stage armed to the teeth with modular syntns, strobes, LEDs, lighting rigs, lasers, a back drop of the night sky, they’ve done all the ground work for you, all you need to do is stand there and try not to blink and miss something. It’s clear they’re here to take you on a journey to somewhere, no place in specific, but more-so be the vehicle for wherever you want to be in the moment.

This has to be the most epic neumos has ever felt. As the band effortlessly glide through a well balanced set, kicking things off with the Zola Jesus featuring “Intro” from the new record before diving into old hits and crowd favs “Kim and Jesse” as well as “We Own The Sky” also making an early appearance in the set list. It strikes me while watching that M83 were one of my wandering discoveries back at my first Coachella in 2005, certainly nothing on the scale of this sort of production. Though I was super stoked on it even then, it’s clear this is a band meant to be seem late at night, in a club. (I also remember thinking this when they played Sasquatch midday 2 years ago), something about atmospheric bands playing midday slots under blaring sun just…doesn’t do it for me.

Tonights atmosphere only intensifies as the crowd gets more into it and the heat rises. A light fog running between heads from the stage, as the humidity in the room clocks in it 11, everyone dancing and sweating and forgetting in 12 hours they’ll be back on earth, midday at the 9 to 5 somewhere, but none of it matters right now as we all submit to the sonic blanket covering us. The light show itself is extremely impressive for a club production, its an all put assault on your senses, not in the offensive crystal castles sort of way, more like flashes of the heavens as m83 pump out the soundtrack to space travel from the stage.

Anthony Gonzales hunches over a board of rack mounted modular synths warping soundscapes in the most epic of fashions as lasers outline his silhouette, and I finally figured it out. The twinkling backdrop makes you feel like you’re outside even though it’s 600 degrees in this place. Giving it a cinematic feel. It’s literally taking you out of this room and into m83 land, which in my mind was some desert in the south west, on the edge of a cliff maybe. Perhaps I’m focusing too much on my own personal interpretation of the feeling, but that speaks volumes about the success of their intentions. The whole thing feels more like a musical or like I mentioned earlier. A soundtrack. It isn’t about the songs themselves as much as the feeling they all create in sequence.

The whole place moves as they launch into midnight city, Gonzales himself dancing like crazy on stage. It doesn’t seem like this is a room full of people super familiar with the deep catalogue material of M83’s past work, but every not a single person in the building at any point looks bored or for that matter, even looks away from the stage. To be looking to hear certain tracks feels like it might be missing the point in the first place as the band clearly have it down to a science how to build to peaks and pull back to slow it down and create welcomed intensities before taking off again to whatever heights they can find. I can only Imagine this is the first of a few tours in support of this record, if you didn’t make it out this time, don’t make the same mistake twice.