M83, HMV Institute Birmingham, 21st January 2012 9/10

Music has a profound effect on mood, yet equally perception of it can be impacted by your prior state of mind. I'd been intrigued by Porcelain Raft's recently released début album Strange Weekend, and his performance in Birmingham certainly had an intensity, yet it failed to really move me. I questioned whether this could be the fault of the 40 year Italian Mauro Remiddi: I'd spent the 30 minutes before he came on stage  failing to secure tickets for a Radiohead gig I desperately wanted to attend with my friends in April. Remiddi has previously written film music, and his sound has elements of dream pop and chillwave. As he sings about love, the sound of electric guitar gradually subsumes the vocals, with the aid of sampler and loop pedals until it envelops you. He's an accomplished performer, and although he says he enjoys improvisation, I didn't feel sufficient spontaneity: I felt as if I was watching a video, disengaged.

When Porcelain Raft finished, had I not travelled so far, I might have gone home to drown my sorrows, as the Radiohead tickets I missed out on had emotional significance for me. But as the lights dimmed, a strange masked figure came on stage, and Intro started to ring out. One of my favourite albums from 2011, Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, had sprung to life, and was suddenly became reality. Except it was thankfully far from my reality: the show took place in a parallel universe, and for 90 blessed minutes, my feelings of disappointment vanished. I'd expected this M83 concert to be full of aural beauty, but not to be such an energetic and overwhelming live experience.

The audience reaction was amazing: the crowd were in a state of ecstasy at this electronic dream pop experience. Hurry Up, We're Dreaming is darker and more ambitious in scale than earlier albums, and although the set ranged widely amongst their material, the absolute highlight for me was Midnight City, when the band was joined by a saxophone and the crowd went wild. In fact, I can unequivocally say that these three minutes were by far my happiest moments of the year so far. Saturdays = Youth was the album which moved M83 further into the mainstream in 2009, being heavily influenced by 1980's music, and Kim & Jessie and We Own the Sky formed important parts of the main set, whilst Skin of The Night and Couleurs comprised the two overwhelming encores.

I hadn't expected lead Anthony Gonzalez to be so extrovert: along with his 3 colleagues, he moved around the stage with real vigour and commitment, and at the end of the main set, briefly crowd surfed. I had an excellent view of keyboard player Morgan Kibby, who was far from passive, as I hope my photographs illustrate. The lighting was stunning, the star-like background appropriate for a band which takes its name from a spiral galaxy. M83 really is an example of an act which adds another dimension to their live show, and the audience reaction was almost on a par with the excitement at Cut Copy gigs. My only regret was that my favourite track from Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, Raconte-Moi Une Histoire, featuring that cut little girl talking about frogs, wasn't performed: perhaps they considered it too challenging to pull off live.

The 1980's were not a happy time for me, or indeed many people in Britain: it was a time of conflict, diverseness and the dominance in public life of intolerant, uncompassionate Conservatism. At this time, I was only listening to classical music, and so I missed experiencing bands such as Ultravox, the like of which have influenced M83. After tonight though, I can imagine how music would have been a counterpoint to the pervasive disharmony at that time: I witnessed a joyous coming together of people, united in their love of music, an illustration of the essential good in humanity. This show can only be described as epic: it was energising, and healing; evidence of my opinion that live music is the most emotionally fulfilling form of entertainment.

Saxophone during City of Light
Setlist
Intro, Teen Angst, Kim & Jessie, Reunion, Sitting, Year One, One UFO, We Own The Sky, Steve McQueen, Wait, This Bright Flash, Claudio Lewis, Midnight City, A Guitar and A Heart.
Encores: Skin of the Night, Couleurs

My first post of 2012 has come so late in January simply because the live music scene in my local Manchester has been frustratingly moribund since the holidays. Fortunately for my sanity, it picks up considerably in February, and April will take me to sunnier climes for the Coachella Festival (featuring M83 amongst many other amazing acts). The new album release schedule has also started to pick up, and I have several recommendations in the pipeline. Note that I've changed my gig camera, and I will be concentrating on still photography rather than video, as this is more in line with my interests and aptitude. Finally, if by some miracle anyone reading this has a spare ticket to Radiohead at Santa Barbara bowl on April 12th, please get in touch: you can @jeremyindie on Twitter or leave a comment on this blog.