My pix of Phantogram during the afternoon light outdoors at Randall's Island were so dark, I had to nick one off Idolator. The darkness is kinda apt since the electronic duo from Saratoga, New York, who have been in Phantogram since 2007, are a mix of the dark and the light.
Dressed in skin tight thigh high boots and black top of gold necklaces, and stuck behind a keyboard, Sarah Berthal looks like a reluctant dominatrix and guitarist Josh Carter's voice is piped too low for his own leads. Together they are more like Cults on record, and more like Marilyn Manson on stage where thewre is a jet black concern to their vigorousness.
The beats are very hard and the mix is completely fucked because it is rattling my teeth, the drumer is programing them (there's a newbie for you) but the band is grooving right along and they are giving a helluva lot of energy. I guess after five years this is a real big opportunity for them.
Playing songs off their 2011 EP Nightlife, the band are very very tight and from time ti time a song pushes itself out of the mix, "Don't Move" is a set highlight, and though Phantogram might have been advised to take their foot off the gas a little, it still moves. The band seems obsessed with making an impression, of getting you and grabbing you, it is a little needy for bad boys, but maybe what we expect from Upstate New York!
The concept: to take Goth and add it to shoegaze is a pretty good one, and when they get the right song, Phantogram no what to do with it. Even when the song is a little inert, their jams are better than, say, Cults who I saw next.
Whatever, Sarah did herself nothing but favors with her sexy, sweaty, steamy performance.
Grade: B