Air and AM Riviera Theatre Chicago, IL March 24, 2010

Like the band’s projected kaleidoscope background, the crowd was eclectic, representing all genres of age, gender and race. Through the first couple songs, they recorded the psychedelic voyage with their cameras, cell phones and memory banks. Duckel’s breathy lisp only added to the sexy sounds oozing from the amp. The seizure causing lighting and the projected background changed from song to song, perfectly complementing the duo’s unique sound with intentionally trippy sight.

The crowd clearly expressed which songs were their favorites by shouting and clapping during the introductions of “Love”, the Virgin Suicide’s “Alpha Beta Gaga” and both of my favorites, “Cherry Blossom Girl” and “Venus.” Listening to electronic sounds and vocoder voices can sometimes be monotonous; but Air’s success is largely due to their impeccable musical timing and inter-dispersing of their ethereal, astral, synthetic and soothing styles. “Love” was like hearing the heartbeats of angels and “Venus” was like their love story.

Their eighth song out of the 20 on their set list was “Tropical Disease.” While I am pretty sure that most of the crowd was on some sort of high already, everyone was feeling a buzz during this song. Intense colors flashed before me and waves of sound vibrated through the air into my brain. I was reminded of astronauts riding on rainbows while simultaneously playing both the flute and xylophone. NASA has their work cut out for them.

The following song “People City” sounded exactly like you would think. The flashing images of busy people and bustling scenes added to the overwhelming dissonance of the song, reminding me of the herds in downtown Chicago. Now one of my new favorite songs, “Eat My Beat” was trippy and funky, yet the falling snowflakes on the screen made me think of the magic of winter, imagining myself standing in the middle of a musical snowfall catching b flats and c sharps on my tongue.

“Kelly Watch the Stars”, the last song before the encore, made me feel like a girl scout on a camping trip staring at the night sky above. I could imagine shooting stars and meteor showers flying by me with each otherworldly arpeggio I heard. The welcome encore consisted of “Heaven’s Light”, another crowd favorite “Sexy Boy” and “La Femme D’Argent.” Their set was awesome, the lighting and projection screen were ingenious and everything was nothing but très bien!

The opening band AM, while good by my standards, did not come close to entertaining level of Air. The crowd was calm, half watching the band, half chattering to each other like squirrels. AM’s smooth and haunting voice was as soothing as a storyteller’s. Their sound was eclectic, clearly gleaning inspiration from the the sounds of The Beatles and genres of jazz, folk, rock, and Brazilian music. Because it is impossible to even find their lyrics online, I cannot say what the name of my favorite song from them is, let alone find the lead singer’s name. But I can say that the drummer looked like Animal from the muppets…how fitting! It’s very rare to hear an artist who can play so many genres so well. Just because AM doesn’t have the entertaining abilities of Air, they are definitely a band you should check out.

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