Air

They're French but I won't hold that against themThe last band I saw were Ween and the gig put me off live shows for a few weeks. Basically, I wanted to elbow most of the crowd in the face Fight Club style. They had to be the biggest bunch of angry, stoned, drunk, rude, stinking, drooling yobbos that I had the misfortune of ever being in the room with. Get over yourselves. Adding to that, I thought Ween performed poorly and the mixing was sub-par. Thank Jesus the good Lord Christ that I had earplugs to filter out most of the shitty top end ear-ruining noise.

I missed out on seeing Queens of the Stone Age on Tuesday night due to unforeseen circumstances. So I guess you could say I was happy when I got to the Palais to see Air last night and found that the crowd were not rude, smelly or angry. The girls were hot and the beer was at a reasonable price. It was civilised. It was also Air’s first time in Australia.

Air is an acronym for "Amour Imagination Rêve" or "Love Imagination Dream". Their latest album Pocket Symphony speaks for itself. It is the follow up to Moon Safari, The Virgin Suicides (soundtrack), 10 00 Hz Legend and Talkie Walkie.

Air is a band you need to sit down to enjoy live. After knocking back a few beers, my fellow Airheads and I heard the chimes from the upstairs landing of the Palais and walked to our seats. There was no pushing and shoving. No shouting and no one knocking you sideways to get a better view.

The band didn’t muck around. They came onto the smokey stage dressed in white suits that were highlighted by the purple stage lighting against a backdrop of stars. How very European. They opened with a track from Pocket Symphony.

The great thing about Air is how adaptable and unobtrusive their music can be. They create great moods for any occasion. You can lie on the couch with a glass of wine and mellow out. You can have them playing in the background at a BBQ or dinner party. You can rock out to them at a concert.

The guitarist Nicolas Godin spoke into his synthesised microphone and said, “Hello we’re Air and you will know this song.” The notes for "Cherry Blossom Girl" were played on his acoustic guitar and that led into a surreal, freakishly brilliant set. "Mer Du Japon" was a highlight. I was having virtual sex with the contemporary psychedelic sound that came from the Moog and Wurlitzer synths played by Jean-Benoît Dunckel and rock-a-tronic sounding guitars and basses that Nicolas strummed through Variant amplifiers. It is like Nicolas and JB are telepathically connected when they play. Everything is perfect: a symbiotic symphony.

"Kelly Watch The Stars" sounded the most like the album version out of all the songs. Being sound purists, it would be virtually impossible to replicate the exact sound of the albums for all their songs. Who wants to hear that anyway?

I felt really comfortable during the set. I was surfing on a rocket. That song wasn’t played, however, during the encore the band played "High School Lover" from The Virgin Suicides soundtrack. I thought that they were going to play "Playground Love," however they opted for the stripped back non-lyrical version minus the awesome chord progression instead. The big hit "Sexy Boy" was next and Nicolas opened it with a synthesised robot voice. This song was let down by the mixing though. It needed the bass line hook turned up significantly. I could hardly make it out.

This was made up for with "La femme d’argent" as the final crescendo that kicked the crowd into interstellar overdrive. It blew the crowd away. I’m lost for words with this one. It was one of the best songs I’ve ever seen performed live.

Air played for just under 90 minutes. I felt they could have played another 5 songs seeing this was their first time in Australia and because they have a huge fan base here. Songs that could have been included were: "Alpha Beta Gaga," "All I Need," "Surfing On A Rocket," "Playground Love," and "How Does It Make You Feel." Most of those songs are now on car ads anyway.