There are many festivities around the metro Detroit area each Labor Day Weekend. But you’d be hard-pressed to find a party more off the hook than the one that took place Saturday night, Sept. 2, at the Pine Knob Music Theatre.
Beck and Phoenix proved perfectly matched for this summer’s co-headlining Summer Odyssey tour. Stunning both musically and visually, the two sets were each nearly non-stop dance parties, filled with artful exuberance that kept the 9,000 or so fans on their feet from start to finish. It was a good night to have your dancing shoes on, as the grooves were at the heart of both performances.
The headliners were also kind to their support acts — Vermont indie rockers Sir Chloe and ethereal California singer-songwriter Weyes Blood (Natalie Mering) — in letting them use the video technology for their sets. The latter’s quietude was a challenging fit in the large outdoor amphitheater, especially during daylight, but Mering, dressed in a shimmering pearl-white gown, was nevertheless engrossing for those paying attention, with a powerful vocal performance and a facile band that fortified the textures of her eight songs.
Phoenix followed with a 70-minute demonstration of the power of the catalog it’s amassed over seven albums since 2000 — including last year’s “Alpha Zulu” — as well as the visual impact of the stage set. Images from Versailles to Chicago, as well as animations, projected from video screens framed around the front and sides and at the back, adding a 4G depth of field to the French quartet’s physical kinetics. With two additional musicians on a rear-stage platform, Phoenix brought the hits early; “Entertainment” and “Lisztomania” kicked off the 16-song set with frontman Thomas Mars and guitarist Laurent Brancowitz bopping around the stage.
Phoenix’s set list focus drew primarily from “Alpha Zulu” and 2009’s gold-certified “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix,” and when not running the dance floor the group impressed the two-part epic “Love Like a Sunset” and “If I Ever Feel,” which found Mars on his knee, singing to a masked and costumed figure that beheaded him at the end of the song.
During the show-closing “Identical (Reprise),” meanwhile, Mars — with a red microphone cord that stretched the length of the Pine Knob aisle — made his way through the pavilion to the lawn, thanking fans, before returning to the stage for a final wave.
Phoenix certainly threw down a gauntlet, but Beck is no stranger to master showmanship and step up to the challenge during his 85-minute set, spanning his 30-year recording career — though surprisingly ignoring his latest album, 2021’s “Hyperspace.” Few at Pine Knob felt anything was missing, however, as favorites such as “Devils Haircut,” “Mixed Bizness” and “The New Pollution” were aural rocket fuel marked by more mesmerizing visuals and backing from a five-member band of Beck veterans that included former Jellyfish members Jason Falkner on guitar and Roger Manning on keyboards and a seamless blend of tracks and samples with the live instrumentation.
Beck (nee Campbell) was his usual glib and droll self, in constant motion save for during a pair of quieter songs (“The Golden Age” and “Lost Cause”) from 2002’s “Sea Change” album. Mostly, though, the troupe kept its foot on the pedal as it tore through the danceable pop and rock of songs such as “Que Ondo Guero,” “Wow,” “Nicotine & Gravy,” “Chemtrails” and “Dreams.” Beck played a bit of slide guitar before launching into “Loser,” then delivered “One Foot in the Grave” with just his voice and harmonica before closing the main set with “E-Pro.”
Phoenix joined Beck for a “Odyssey,” the joyous, Talking Heads-influenced single they collaborated on especially for the tour, then brought the party to a conclusion with the sinewy “Where It’s At,” extolling the virtues of “two turntables” and a microphone on a night that offered a great deal more than that.
