Beck and Phoenix played the KIA Forum Monday night (8/7) with Jenny Lewis and Sir Chloe.
Following sets from Sir Chloe and Jenny Lewis, French Pop group Phoenix took the stage. This was their second performance there this year having played the iHeart Alter Ego earlier this year in January. Two days later they played an intimate show at the Majestic Ventura Theater and last year played across the street at the YouTube Theater. It was the group’s Grammy winning fourth album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (2009) that they had breakthrough success with it being their first Gold album and it contained two of their major hits “1901” and “Lisztomania.” Phoenix performed on nearly every major late night show including Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Conan O’Brien (Tonight Show), Craig Ferguson, and David Letterman. Phoenix would have major success in the 2010’s playing Coachella, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Outside Lands, and Daft Punk would be surprise guests at their Madison Square Garden Performance. Since the release of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, they have released three more albums with the most recent being Alpha Zulu (2022).
Phoenix opened with their Platinum single “Lisztomania.” The show features the same dual screen like a frame with another screen behind as it did on their tour last year. Phoenix played a 19-song set full of hits like “Entertainment” “If I Ever Feel Better,” and “Ti Amo.” “Everything is Everything” was played for the first time on this tour. The second to last song was “1901,” and singer Thomas Mars walked through the crowd all the way to back and crowd surfed back onstage. Their set ended with “Identical (Reprise).” Phoenix was formed by Mars, brothers/guitarists Laurent Brancowitz and Christian Mazzalai, and bassist Deck d’Arcy. Drummer Thomas Hedlund has been recording and touring with the group since 2005 and keyboardist Robin Coudert began working with the group in 2000 on United.
Closing the show was Beck with an incredible band of bassist Justin Meldal-Johnsen (St. Vincent/ Nine Inch Nails) who was also with Beck from 1996-2016, drummer Joey Waronker (Roger Waters/R.E.M.) who has been on seven of Beck’s albums and multiple tours since 1996, guitarist Jason Falkner who has been working with Beck since Sea Change (2002), keyboardist Roger Manning Jr. (Air/ Jay-Z) whose first album with Beck was Mutations, and percussionist Ian Longwell who is also Beck's music technologist. Beck has released 14 albums over the last 30 years. Beck won the 2015 Grammy Album of the Year for Morning Phase which came as a big surprise across the globe in a category against Beyonce, Ed Sheeran, Pharell, and Sam Smith.
Beck played a set of 20 songs beginning with “Devils Haircut.” Beck is not only a great writer, singer, and musician, but just a great performer overall. The graphics on the screen played a major part of the show. Beck’s set included his most famous song “Loser” and other hits like “E-Pro,” and “Que Onda Guero.” The second to last song was “Odyssey,” and Beck and his band were joined by Phoenix. Johnsen let d’Arcy take over bass duties halfway through. For the final song “Where It’s At” beach balls were thrown out.
