Phantogram Ended Its Sound On Sound Fest Weekend With A Big Ass Dance Party At The Bomb Factory On Saturday.
All photos by Allan Hayslip.
There’s always been something romantic about girl-guy musical duos.
Phantogram’s no different: With the amazing Sarah Barthel on bass and vocals and Josh Carter playing most everything else, the duo has the proficiency at mixing synths and beats to make pretty much anyone dance. So it’s no wonder they played to a packed Bomb Factory on Saturday night, turning what otherwise was billed as a concert into a big dance party.
With DJ/Producer The Range opening up and getting the crowd grooving, The Bomb Factory was already heavily packed early on in the night. And the passionate fans were not leaving to get more drinks lest they lose their hard-fought spots out on the floor.
That dedication would prove worthwhile, as the band ended up playing through a set that felt like a well-made mixtape. There was a really cool sense of an ebb and flow with the band switching from dancier numbers to more chill tracks.
The band’s visuals were nothing to mess with either. Upon a see-through curtain that went up and down depending on the song, projections varied from cool geometric shapes to an awesome interactive glitch pattern. It was such an engrossing element to the production that, in a kind of bizarre turn, seemingly no one could tell when the band left the stage to wait for the “encore” to begin. As such, there was little to no applause imploring the band to come back out.
Still, come back out they did, closing out the show with both “Fall in Love” and “You Don’t Get Me High Anymore.”
At one point in the night, Phantogram mentioned that this was its last tour stop in a while after playing Austin’s Sound on Sound Fest. To that end, the band put on a set worthy of the upcoming breather elated to be there. It was an impassioned display, to be sure.