It’s Spring 2024, and the air is thick with nostalgia. This year, there seem to be just as many anniversary tours as there are jaunts plugging new records – with the likes of everyone from Liam Gallagher and Green Day to Interpol, Bloc Party and Death Cab/Postal Service celebrating their past and transporting you back to an era of your choosing. Hell, in these dumpster fire days, who wouldn’t wanna take a trip back in time? Tonight, we find ourselves in the fittingly opulent London Coliseum for French chill-tronica icons Air, marking 25 years of their immaculate debut ‘Moon Safari’.
The achingly stylish Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel – joined by live drummer Louis Delorme – step into a wide letterbox-shaped stage to lead us through the album in full. There was already a certain timeless spirit to the effortlessly cool lounge ambience of ‘La femme d’argent’, the European seduction of ‘Sexy Boy’, and the subtle euphoric future-pop of ‘Kelly Watch the Stars’. But here, tonight, with their fellow album tracks fleshed out with some jazzy flair and the visual feast of the Kubrick-esque staging, this feels less like a snapshot of the ‘90s and more a performance holding you very much in the now.
The pure musicianship would have been enough (it beggars belief that a trio can create such a galaxy of sound), but the whole experience is one that lifts you from your seat. Never a lull, the show is one of delicious Versailles luxury for the eyes and ears. It’s heartening to see so many concert-goers regularly turning to their pals in glee, mouthing what we can only assume is the French for “holy shit!”
Sexy Sunday.@airofficial pic.twitter.com/Qe4If4YBuR
— Andrew Trendell (@AndrewTrendell) March 24, 2024
The blissed-out ‘New Star In The Sky’ and ‘Le voyage de Pénélope’ wash over the sold-out crowd, hungry for more. When the trio return to the stage for the luscious horizon of ‘Radian’ and the sci-fi romance of ‘Venus’, it seems we still have miles to go. The rest of the set leans heavily on electronica staple albums ‘Talkie Walkie’ and ‘10 000 Hz Legend’, proving how wonderfully Air imagined a future at the turn of the century. Highlights come with the runaway space-rock rush of ‘Don’t Be Light’ and, of course, the gentle twinkling perfection of ‘Alone In Kyoto’ – yes, that one off of Lost In Translation – before closing with a genre-clash nod to Kraftwerk on the cinematic ‘Electronic Performers’.
It takes a certain dedication to play an album from top to bottom, but Air have created an immersive universe for ‘Moon Safari’. Rather than yearning for the past, the band suspend us in time with thick grooves and sheer class – a constant joy from start to finish. See this show at all costs.
Air played:
‘Moon Safari’ set:
‘La femme d’argent’
‘Sexy Boy’
‘All I Need’
‘Kelly Watch the Stars’
‘Talisman’
‘Remember’
‘You Make It Easy’
‘Ce matin‐là’
‘New Star in the Sky (Chanson pour Solal)’
‘Le voyage de Pénélope’
Set 2:
‘Radian’
‘Venus’
‘Cherry Blossom Girl’
‘Run’
‘Highschool Lover’
‘Surfing on a Rocket’
‘Don’t Be Light’
Encore:
‘Alone in Kyoto’
‘Electronic Performers’