Live Review: Phoenix, Cleopold

Melbourne's Cleopold is a very talented bloke who sits unobtrusively behind his organ playing chilled-out pop, electronic and ambient music extremely well. His sound is very lush, his songs are quite evocative and about as varied as you can get when you consider they emanate from a single instrument.

However, it's difficult to imagine what kind of warped 'wisdom' was at play when it came time to select such a low-key opener for such a happy, up-tempo pop show in a big hall jam-packed with party-ready punters. As well as being diverse, his songs are short, subdued and soothing, and the vibe created seems wildly inappropriate for this setting. Very much a case of right artist, wrong bill.

Phoenix have two decades, six albums and thousands of miles behind them, and they are ageing like the finest and most expensive of French reds. Forum Theatre is the perfect venue for this band: spacious enough to feel like big, raucous pop-rock show, small enough to still feel intimate. And the performance they bring this night is something to behold. 

Opening with the propulsive J-Boy, which comes replete with a dazzlingly colourful visual display that sets the tone for the show, the band takes the Forum crowd on a joyous 90-plus-minute journey of celebration — exquisite pop at its very best. The set is crowd-pleasingly career-spanning, but with a solid focus on their sumptuous latest record Ti Amo.

Frontman Thomas Mars is a walking, dancing, singing phenomenon, prancing around the huge stage, getting into the crowd, crowd-surfing and, towards the end of the set, even thanking individual crowd members for their attendance and enthusiasm. The band behind him are slick, highly skilled and playful. Touring drummer Thomas Hedlund slams down the grooves like a man possessed and lays out highly active, often syncopated drum lines.

The sheer breadth of moods and dynamics this band create across the course of their live set is nothing short of mind-boggling; sometimes wistful and whimsical, sometimes frenetic, sometimes ambient and experimental, and sometimes grandiose and stadium rock-like. Add in the aforementioned stunning visuals and you have yourself the complete, definitive modern-pop show. An absolute joy.