Daft Punk, The Rapture, SebastiAn & Kavinsky @ The Greek 7/27/07

Daft Punk is playing at my house, my house…

Whew, I am tired. Last night was a dance off of gigantic proportions.

After the long, complicated journey to get to The Greek from SF, we wait, and wait some more, and wait even more, to assure ourselves a nice position at this all GA venue for which I have still not made up my mind if I like. A true people watching extravaganza, we watched the outfits roll in like a Burning Man fashion show for freaks and geeks.

The Rapture came on at an early 7:45p. 30 seconds in appeased any doubts that they could not pull off a live set. The jamming sax, the perfect pitch voices, all sounded great. Not very many Rapture fans in the crowd…but people seemed to get into it as their Daft Punk drugs started to take affect. The Rapture guys are ultra geeks–makes me kinda want to see a musician’s Jeopardy where The Rapture, Hot Chip, and The Shins go at it. Highlights: the cowbell songs incited a wave of “more cowbell’ from the crowd; the crow call in The Devil; and First Gear, which is my personal favorite.

SebastiAn & Kavinsky played a short DJ set off to the side of the stage. A little JUSTICE, and a great remix of RATM’s Killing in the Name kept the crowd pumped up. That, and the fact that occasionally, crazy lights would peek through the curtains, hinting at what was ahead.

Daft Punk has bridged the gap between the techno-junkies and the occasional Saturday night trance dancers. A DJ set of gargantuan proportions has established them as one of the best shows to see. The crowd of 8500 was adorned with silver streamers, neon colors, and plastic smiles. Boys in silver tights, visors, motorcycle helmets…a pregnant woman in an ’80’s striped neon mini, a large breasted woman in a mesh shirt and that’s it….the list goes on.

Once the pyramid was unveiled, the crowd went nutso. It was like that club scene from The Matrix…a sea of people all getting down. The songs were mixed in ‘teaser campaign’ fashion…just when you thought something was coming, you were hit with something else. The lights are something indescribable…please see the video below to better understand. Daft Punk belongs to the list of musicians who have preformed under hidden identities (most of which are now revealed): KISS, GWAR, Gorillaz. The ‘elusive French duo’ remains rather elusive on stage, never leaving their pyramid, barely looking up at the crowd. What are they doing back there? Making dinner? Finger painting? Playing video games? Can they even see out of those helmets?

You know what- who cares. I came for the lights.