Last Night: Phoenix and the Soft Pack at the Fillmore

Richard Haick

​Phoenix, The Soft Pack
Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2010
The Fillmore

Check out the slideshow here.

Better than: Getting "bit in the dick" by a German shepherd (more on that later).

Few bands will kick off a set by playing their biggest hit first. But France's Phoenix seemed confident last night that they had more than a single smash up their sleeve, and judging by the way the fans sang and clapped and hooted along for most of their hour plus Fillmore set, they were right.

Richard Haick

​The group opened with "Lisztomania" like a finale, the signature turquoise and pink colors of the Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix album flashing brighter than a video game console behind them; and they played their finale like the winners of the superbowl, the crowd surging to cheer and raise their fists in victory with the reigning champions of pop, frontman Thomas Mars raised metaphorically (and, perhaps, physically?) on their shoulders. In between, the performance caused the audience to act like it was New Year's Eve, laughing and whooping and hugging one another--making the actions of  the nobodies on the wooden floor around you as infectious as the giant somebodies raised above you on the stage. All this is to say, only four months after Phoenix last came to town, they remain exciting and excitable performers--even when they played, ya know, those songs that aren't off Wolfgang, aren't being used in every last movie preview promo, and aren't on the latest edition of  Rock Band.