words and photos by Dakota Fine

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If there was anyone in attendance for the Phoenix show this past Monday night at DAR who did not enjoy their performance, you might want to ask yourself whether you’re really living.

Phoenix came on to a sold out crowd at DAR and immediately wowed the audience with “Lisztomania.” I love it when bands do that. You’re at a show and the band comes out and the first song they play is the first song off their newest (most awesome-est) album, and it’s like you just slipped in the CD and pressed play, except there they are live and in the flesh, and the audience just goes nuts. Totally fantastic.

The next song they went into was “Long Distance Call” another great song from their prior album. In short, the entire show was a non-stop thrillride. No matter the concert was at DAR (with their stupid reserved seating only auditorium), Phoenix’s insanely catchy sound and brilliant performance made everyone there want to dance, even if it was by themselves.

Phoenix closed out (predictably) with “1901″ which just about brought the house down. At the tailend of their four course encore, with the entire audience breathlessly clinging to their every note in anxious anticipation of those resonant opening bass chords, the boys from Paris let us have it. Not so predictably, by the end of the song, not only had lead singer Thomas Mars scaled the stage right side of the auditorium climbing into the crowd, he invited the entire audience onstage for a dance party. A beautiful thing.

Postscript: During the show, Mars made reference to not only how glad they were to be back in DC, but glad to be playing at a bigger venue. Commenting that the last time they had played in DC it was at the Rock ‘n Roll Hotel where the entire room was the size of DAR’s stage, I couldn’t help but to smile to myself thinking about the befuddlement and consternation of pretty much everyone I talked to when we all heard Phoenix was playing RNR and the show was completely sold out.

Also, the opening band, Two Door Cinema Club, a band from Ireland opened. They were pretty amazing, and I’m including some images from their performance below. (Also, it should be noted, the drummer from Two Door also played the drums also for Phoenix, which was a bit of a surprise… but then again neither band has a drummer listed on wikipedia, which, I’m not really sure that means anything, but I guess it means something.)