If you were a college student between the years 1998 and 2002, chances are the music of Air‘s Moon Safari is permanently imprinted in your brain.
The groove-laden, loungey downbeat electronica collection was retro and futuristic at once, its drifting ambience and heady melodies connecting in any manner of settings. Working in the art studio or photo lab? Studying in the library? Cutting a short for film class? Vibing out in a late night shift at the campus radio station? Soundtracking the chillout room at a party? Going to sleep? Waking up? Driving? It fit perfectly in practically every scenario, its simplistic lyrics of repeated refrains deeply evoking moods of love, longing, cosmic bliss, and the tiniest touch of existential dread.
The band continued with successive releases through the 21st century, of course — 2004’s Talkie Walkie and 2007’s Pocket Symphony were both particularly impressive — but the prospect of hearing Air play its classic debut studio album front to back brought a robust crowd to The Met Philly this week, a mix of romantic folks who used “You Make It Easy” as their wedding song to modestly chemically altered fans yelling “let’s fucking GOOOOO” when the vocodor vocal of “Remember” kicked in (the most Philly possible reaction to a generally mellow band).
Air | photo by John Vettese for WXPN
Air | photo by John Vettese for WXPN
For an album as bathed in layered texture as Moon Safari, it would have been totally understandable if Air had relied primarily on backing tracks for this tour. Again, these are songs that were endlessly consumed in its heyday, being played for listeners who probably knew every nuance, every oscillating synth swell, every manipulated vocal, every handclap and instrumental flourish. So snaps to the core duo of Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel, supported by drummer Louis Delorme, for leaning into live performance as much as possible, stripping down the music to a more minimal essence and, short of some bossa nova drum loops and occasional samples, relying mostly on what they could do live. On “Ce matin‐là,” the album’s gently impactful trombone melody was transposed to Dunckel’s Rhodes; on “You Make It Easy,” Beth Hirsch’s vocal was sung by Godin through a robotic harmonizer. The changes were noticeable, but tastefully executed, and parts that absolutely couldn’t be lost or recreated by the trio (like the wailing guitar on “Sexy Boy,” or Hirsch’s vocal warmth on “All I Need”) were selectively piped in.
The band performed inside a glowing rectangular cuboid set with projection-ready LED walls and an ever-changing aesthetic; sometimes the vibe was a decaying post-industrial warehouse, sometimes we were on the bridge of a spacecraft with windows overlooking the gas giants drifting below; sometimes, it was a warm studio space; sometimes, it was simply a blank canvas. Not a ton for chitchat, Air worked their way through a sublime performance of the full Moon Safari album — Delorme comically using the extensive drum-free sections to ball up in nap position onstage, or stretch his legs across the kick drum — before giving us an extensive second set of cult classics like “Highschool Lover” (a score piece from their soundtrack to Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides that incorporates the lovelorn melody of its single “Playground Love”), a driving “Don’t Be Light” from 2001’s 10,000 Hz Legend, and the gorgeous “Alone in Kyoto” from Talkie Walkie.
Air | photo by John Vettese for WXPN
Air | photo by John Vettese for WXPN
Air’s Moon Safari tour visits The Anthem in Washington D.C. tonight and continues across North America through the middle of next month, with a South American run and dates in Asia following; find their full itinerary here and see photos from The Met Philly below.