Madeon (TC) @ Madison Square Garden 10/2

My section in the arena was fairly quiet. Once AlunaGeorge left the stage, a couple of people behind me were chatting it up about how they were waiting for Zedd to come out (like 95% of the individuals that slipped into MSG tonight) and most had never heard of this dude called ‘Madeon’. (Is that a band?)

I’ll be super transparent. As much as I was excited to join the production party that Zedd was about to throw out on stage, I was mostly sitting in my seat to see Madeon live. I silently begun to ask myself ‘how much are these people going to hate me?’ because I was going to be the only one in my section to stand right up. ‘Oh well, I’ll never seen any of these people ever again.’ I reasoned. I was there to have a good time.

To accompany his live production, he usually will bring his chevron set up in performing Adventure Live, but with Zedd’s giant LED spaceship set up, he was going to incorporate his visuals into it, as everyone else had done before. This was going to be fun! Not to mention, it was his last stop on Zedd’s True Colors tour. Going out with a bang, most definitely.

Anyway, when the venue went black, I stood myself right up, much to the confusion of many. many people. Instantly clapping the second I heard Isometric rumble throughout MSG. I will say that the sound was incredible, and I already had goosebumps about ten seconds in. I was instantly torn between wanting to record the introduction, or just stand there and make a fool out of myself. I opted for standing there and making a fool out of myself. I pretty much shut myself off and forgot about everything around me. WHich was actually a great feeling and something to do if you really want to enjoy a show.

I didn’t see him pop on out onto stage, but the floor did. I was too interested in the visuals, since I was very curious on how they’d look using Zedd’s set up. They did mirror his chevron set up, but because my view was on a tilted angle, his visuals looked like they were constantly cut in half. I mean it didn’t make me noy enjoy the show any less, but the brand new Pop Culture visuals looked downright weird to me even if they were fucking amazing!

Anyway, he did open with You’re On, and I think I did smack the poor guy next to me once or twice in my singing and dancing – which is why he promptly moved away from me in the beginning. Followed by OK, and OK is a song that I am in love with live, and the subtle keyboard melody during it really took me by surprise but I really enjoyed it. I don’t know if he’d always done that, but it was at MSG that it stood out to me. The City stood out as usual with its entirely green visuals, I hope he never touches those.

By this point more people were standing up (yay!) I thought he’d go directly into Innocence after Icarus, but for the sake of time, the faint introduction of Innocence after Icarus disappeared completely. Icarus has the funky turquoise visual game going on.

(Because of time constraints, none of these songs were played: La Lune, Innocence, Beings, Zephyr and Cut The Kid)

When Pay No Mind showed up, I screamed like a little girl. No, it was bad. I believe several heads turned around and looked at this crazy woman, who was by herself, losing her mind. There is something about this song live that just really makes me happy, Some of my favorite visuals too. Reds, blues, everything all over the place. It’s like living inside of a kaleidoscope. At least for me, whenever I hear this song.

Though I was surprised that he whipped out Albatros, but I mean it probably would’ve been really awkward sounding if he didn’t, because I feel like Albatros and Pay No Mind live go hand in hand. One doesn’t really sound right without the other. I wasn’t complaining. I was happy to see those geometric crazy visuals again.

Imperium was the follow up, and let me talk about Imperium live for a hot minute – the live version is brilliant. This song has come a long way since it’s birth, and it’s been amazing to see what he does with it live because it consistently changes. Just when I think I know how Imperium functions live, it changes. The song is just completely red. When the introduction started, all of MSG was coated in dark red, bright red, all shades. With the occasional ‘white out’, but the slivers of red were still predominant. It gave me the chills. I’ve always been a very visual person, and I remember a lot about things that way,

At one point, his chevron visuals shattered and he stood there with his arms out stretched – it was super intriguing. I have it on video, so you’ll see what I’m talking about. Imperium also has a red chevron visual where it looks like it’s entirely made out of lines you’re connecting or weaving through one another rapidly that moves inside in and out. That’s always been my #1 favorite thing to see in Imperium. I really like it. There’s this sense of anger and power attached to the song live too that just grips the atmosphere.

All right, Pop Culture. Let me be honest. At points I’m really tired of hearing Pop Culture live. Though its his signature and honestly, I feel like it just BELONGS in his set live. It’s all tied to who he is, and it’s constantly changing as well. He completely changed the visuals for it, and I felt like I was riding a roller coaster through a 3D game the entire time. So cool. I wanted to watch him, but I barely could because my attention was solely on the screen. When I did look over at him, he was playing his launchpad as if he was rocking out on a guitar. I loved it. He probably could play this in his sleep by now. I have a video of it, so you’ll be able to see it all.

Nonsense. Is my absolute favorite song off the Adventure album. I wish he did more with it live, but he pulls out the elements of what makes it my favorite song and totally emphasizes them live. Nonsense to me is walking through the desert and being hopeful that you’ll find comfort in isolation. I think the visuals have everything to do with my line of thinking. It was also really nice to see all of MSG waving their arms back and forth. That’s the thing to do during Nonsense live of course. :’)

I did not record a second of Finale because that song just captivated me from start to finish. I did take one photo of it, I believe hahaha. Finale is another song that has advanced really well over the years and just fits into the live scheme he has going on right now so well as well. The visuals donned their new look too, completely red. A lot of his live set is red, but I have no problems with that. They used to be blue. I complete the visuals to a very chaotic lightning storm.

So.

Technicolor.

ARGH.

I could hear Technicolor for the rest of my life and be the happiest girl on this planet. This is my favorite song of his he’s ever put out. You don’t know how happy I was that he didn’t cut it out and that he’s still playing it in general. He changed it quite a bit at MSG which completely blew me away because I wasn’t ready for it at all. At one point I was going so crazy that I nearly fell over the chair in front of me, and onto the poor girl that was so not ready for me at that point. I have a video of it to show what I’m talking about. The visuals are pretty similar to Pixel Empire’s, but a lot less subdued.

Towards the end, he hoped on down as he normally does, and swung around the center of the stage to take a picture of the Madison Square Garden crowd.

Home was of course, the ending of his set. I was really excited to hear it, because it’s the only song he sings live during his set. He’s a lot more comfortable with the song, I can tell. I can hear HIM and I don’t hear all the awful distortion that I was hearing during the early stages of the Adventure tour a few months ago. I had goosebumps throughout the entire thing, because I think the last time I’ve heard him that clear was in Toronto. Not to mention, everyone was completely silent. GOD BLESS THE MSG CROWD.

However, there were times where his voice would still distort, and I couldn’t really hear the words. I knew what he was singing, but for everyone who didn’t, this could be a little confusing for them. It sounded like just notes at one point. Though, that didn’t take away from the fact that he still nailed it, and will only continue to improve.

“Damn Dani, was there anything you DIDN’T like about the set?”

He did a fantastic job with the limited time he had. You could tell he was totally stoked about playing an arena like Madison Square Garden. Come on. How do you think it felt when he walked out on that stage? I’m very proud of him, and I really enjoyed the set from start to finish. There were no problems at all, and I got to hear everything that I wanted to hear in the time frame he had! (Honestly he could’ve just won me over with Technicolor alone) I had a lot of fun.

This dude next to me tapped me and told me I didn’t take my eyes off “that guy” for a second. So it was a great night for him, and I was very happy to have the pleasure of enjoying him before Zedd came out!

Some videos:

Home is already uploaded. You’ll find it on my Tumblr already. Photos you can find here as well! :)