Scenes From Monday's Free Empire of the Sun Show.

There are bands that eschew much showiness in their live shows, bands that speak endlessly about “letting the music do the talking,” bands that just get up on stage and do their thing without any frills.

Empire of the Sun — clearly — is not one of these bands.

On Monday night at the House of Blues, as part of a free show presented by Yahoo! that also featured the band's fellow groovy Aussie upstarts Gold Fields, Empire of the Sun's show was as extravagant as all get out. Check it:

The whole thing felt like a fever dream. It was a spectacular display, and I mean that in the most literal of senses: A massive LED backdrop lit up the entire venue with various futuristic images; dancers decked out in costumes that recalled a sort of Daft Punk-meets-My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy vibe skipped hither and yon across the band's multi-tiered stage adornments; the band's backing multi-instrumentalist shimmied nonstop, all the while decked out in gold drop-crotch Hammer pants; the touring drummer donned a viking cap while leading the crowd in various clap- and fist-pump-alongs; and frontman Luke Steele ambled about in a teal-and-silver get-up that recalled the flamboyant dress of the sun god Ra in the the movie Stargate, if only he were played by David Bowie.

But was there substance behind all this shimmer? Tough to say. Empire of the Sun isn't necessarily what one might call a substantive outfit. Their songs are about being young, about the vibrancy of being alive and, in at least one instance, about embracing the euphoria of dream states. This is an escapist outfit — hardly an introspective one.

And on Monday night, for well over an hour, Empire of the Sun afforded an elated audience a remarkable escape.

Substantive it wasn't, no.

But it was definitely pretty awesome.





All photos by Karlo X. Ramos.

3785_2

3785_3

3785_4

3785_5

3785_6

3785_7

3785_8

3785_9

3785_10

3785_11

3785_12

3785_13

3785_14

3785_15

3785_16

3785_17

3785_18

3785_19

3785_20

3785_21

3785_22

3785_23

3785_24

3785_25

3785_26

3785_27

3785_28

3785_29

3785_30

3785_31

3785_32

3785_33

3785_34

3785_35

3785_36

3785_37

3785_38

3785_39

3785_40

3785_41

3785_42

3785_43

3785_44

3785_45

3785_46

3785_47

3785_48

3785_49

3785_50

No more articles