Daft Punk @ O2 Wireless Festival, 6.14.07
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I went to three of the four days of the O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park last weekend and saw a number of excellent performances, but the blinding (literally and figuratively) brilliance of Daft Punk’s MONUMENTAL set on Saturday night renders any effort to even so much as remember any of the other acts of the festival all but pointless. No amount of superlative adjectives could even begin to do the show justice, but hey, I’ve never let that sop me before; let’s do this.
With me in London and at the festival this past weekend was my dear friend (my #1 stunna, if you will) and former classmate at UVA Jia Tolentino, and we made a point to get as close to the front of the stage as possible for Daft Punk, which meant situating ourselves in a prime position three hours before Daft Punk was to take the stage. The wait was made incredibly tolerable (to say the least) by an excellent set from CSS and my first ever LCD Soundsystem live experience (which was amazing, as expected), but while I’d normally wet myself at the prospect of seeing those two acts on the same stage in any setting, it almost felt like obligatory foreplay with the knowledge that DAFT MOTHERFUCKING PUNK would be directing a crash course in euphoria in only a few hours time.
Moments after LCD exited the stage an ominous black curtain was pulled across the set and the frantic construction of Daft Punk’s now-infamous pyramid began, only adding to the nigh-unbearable anticipation. After one of the most interminable waits of my life, the massive LCD screens to the right and left of the stage went black and an ominous synth line led us into the teaser trailer for Daft Punk’s latest cinematic odyssey, Electroma, which debuted to mixed reviews at Cannes last year and is currently being shown as a midnight movie on a regular basis in Paris. I can’t even begin to describe how awesome the movie looks, but I digress. From there it was another fifteen minutes before the stage was finally revealed eliciting uproarious applause from the crowd and soiling more than just a few trousers I reckon. Then, it began.
Leading in with an alternating refrain of “HUMAN” and “ROBOT”, Daft Punk built up an almost unbearable amount of anticipation for the beat to drop, before finally dropping the monstrous central riff of “Robot Rock” and throwing the crowd into a complete frenzy. You’d have been hard-pressed to find anyone in the 20,000 people (a very conservative estimate) crammed in front of the main stage who wasn’t completely freaking the fuck out at that point, and things only got crazier when the spoken verse of “Technologic” burst forth from the speakers accompanied by each word spelled out in twenty foot tall letters across the massive LCD screen behind the pyramid. It initially employed the lusty vocals of Busta Rhymes’ “Touch It” before evolving into the robotic high-pitched vocals of the original version, at which point the crowd let out another tremendous roar of approval. “Crescendolls” came shortly thereafter and was one of the few tracks that was played largely unchanged in its original form and was just a straight-up party from start to finish. Then it was time for the show’s first true climax, when the duo dropped “Around The World” transitioning FLAWLESSLY into “Harder Better Faster Stronger”. Suffice it to say, SHIT WAS BANANAS.
But the undeniable highlight for me and the moment I’d been waiting for all night (all my life?) was when at long last the ominous bells of “Aerodynamic” burst forth from the speakers, announcing the arrival of the “Aerodynamic” edit of “One More Time”. All of the highlights from each track were thrown together to create one massive, empire-toppling mega-anthem, resulting in rampant shit-losing throughout the crowd and some of the most incredible four minutes of my life. RIDICULOUS.
No single track was able to top “Aerodynamic”/”One More Time” (though “Da Funk” came damn close), but that’s not to say that the second half of their wasn’t every bit as life-affirming as the first. At one point during “Prime Time of Your Life” I had my hands over my mouth and my eyes transfixed on the stage, prompting a woman next to me to ask me what I was worrying about and demand that I have fun, but the fact of the matter was that I was simply just too completely overwhelmed by sheer, unadulterated awe to even move at that point. Fortunately, it was only moments later that “Da Funk” dropped and sent me and everyone else into another frenzied dance session once again. After an hour of pumping out an unrelenting stream of solid-gold jams the duo struck a triumphant pose and left the stage, giving everyone a few moments to reflect, recharge and refuel before one last final burst of euphoria.
As if things could get any more ridiculous, the climax of the encore came during a reprisal of the bridge of “Aerodynamic” mixed with Thomas Bangalter side-project Stardust’s “Music Sounds Better With You”, in which the music stopped suddenly for a beat as all the lights went out, and neon orange lights lining every detail of the duo’s robot suits lit up and caused one final audience freak-out before they pumped out a few more jams with their suits still ablaze with neon and left the stage for good. The only disappointment of the encore - nay, the entire performance - was the exclusion of “Digital Love”, but it certainly didn’t keep the show from going down as the best live experience of my life and a performance I will never forget.
With the exception of a few changes here and there (the exclusion of “Crescendolls” from the Coachella set, for example), the setlist was largely identical to the one from Coachella 2006 and most of the same tricks were employed, so those well-versed in the incredible quality bootleg of the show should know what I’m talking about. For the uninitiated, you’ll find high-quality soundboard recordings of the shows below along with a grip of some of the better Daft Punk remixes to surface over the years.
MP3s:
“Robot Rock” (Live @ Coachella) - Daft Punk
“Technologic” (Live @ Coachella) - Daft Punk
“Around The World/Harder Better Faster…” (Live @ Coachella) - Daft Punk
“One More Time” (Aerodynamic Remix) (Live @ Coachella) - Daft Punk
“Da Funk” (Live @ Coachella) - Daft Punk
“Harder Better Faster Stronger” (Dirty Disco Youth Remix) - Daft Punk
“Human After All” (SebastiAn Remix) - Daft Punk
“Human After All” (Justice’s Guy Man After All Mix) - Daft Punk
For a few moments after the show I thought I may never be able to see another live due to the knowledge that nothing will ever top Daft Punk’s seismic throwdown in Hyde Park, but with the news that Kissy Sell Out would be manning the tables in an hour at 333 in East London and a need to work off some SERIOUS adrenaline, we didn’t think twice before jumping into a cab and heading straight for Shoreditch.
KISSY SELL OUT @ 333
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There’s no doubt that Phones was the king of the remix world in 2005, but 2006 saw the crown being shared by three newcomers. Metronomy, SebastiAn and Justice all churned out their fair share of incredible mixes, and you’d have been hard-pressed to declare a consensus favorite without considerable backlash. However, in 2007 it looks like a lone Brit is set to own the title once again. With a grip of mind-blowing remixes for the likes of pop behemoths All Saints, Mark Ronson and Gwen Stefani already to his name this year and publications already declaring him “an English Justice”, 2007 is shaping up to be the Year of the Kissy in a big way.
We made it to 333 with time to spare and killed time over drinks before Kissy took the stage at 12:30 and jumped straight into the early stages of his set, an impressive 30-minute run that included a hot mix of New Young Pony Club’s “Ice Cream” and was remarkably solid despite it’s obvious warm-up status. All of a sudden the opening synth burst of Kissy’s AMAZING mash-up of “Let’s Get Ready To Rumble” and Ali Love’s “K-Hole” burst forth from the mix and it was GAME ON. We quickly downed our drinks and legitimately raced to the dancefloor to revel in what is legitimately one of the single most brilliant mash-ups I’ve ever heard. There wasn’t a seconds rest before Kissy set off his signature fog horn (as in, dude has an actual fog horn on stage with him), which is basically his own special way of saying HEY IT’S TIME TO FUCKING DANCE OKAY?, and jumped right into his excellent “True Romance” mix of Mark Ronson’s recent chart-topper, “Stop Me”. The next hour was a relentless onslaught of jam after jam after JAM, with his remixes of the Black Ghosts “Face” and Gwen Stefani’s “Wind It Up”, as well as a mix in which dude took Nirvana’s “Come As You Are” and managed to turn it into a poppy-as-shit dancefloor burner. The final stages of his set featured a bangin’ update of “SexyBack” and GoodBooks “Leni”, but it wasn’t until he dropped his UN-FUCKING-BELIEVABLE (as in, the best remix of the year) mix of All Saints’ “Chick Fit” that the show reached terminal euphoria. Shortly thereafter Boy 8-Bit took to the decks and Kissy exited the stage to riotous applaud from an audience of sweaty, but immensely satisfied customers, and it was unanimously agreed that Kissy Sell Out’s set was truly the only thing in the world that could have followed Daft Punk’s performance and not have been a complete letdown.
I’m not kidding when I say this guy’s the best in the game right now, and you’d be wise to get your hands on everything and anything he touches. Below you’ll find a handful of his remixes and an original track he recently dropped for an Annie Mac mix on BBC Radio One. I’m serious about that “Chick Fit” remix; it’s some next-level shit.
MP3s:
“Get Ready For The K-Hole!” - Kissy Sell Out ((highly recommended))
“Chick Fit” (KSO’s Excellent Adventure) - All Saints ((highly recommended))
“Stop Me” (KSO’s True Romance) - Mark Ronson ((highly recommended))
“Face” (KSO’s Essex Street Corner Dubplate) - The Black Ghosts
“Leni” (Kissy Sell Out Remix) - GoodBooks
“Wind It Up” (Kissy Sell Out Remix) - Gwen Stefani
“We Are Rockstars” (Kissy Sell Out Remix) - Does It Offend You, Yeah?
“Harriet” (Annie Mac Edit) - Kissy Sell Out
MUSE TAKE OVER WEMBLEY STADIUM
Everyone who wasn’t at Daft Punk was across town for the second night of Muse’s ridiculous takeover of Wembley Stadium, which seems to have made it to the top of everyone in attendance’s Best Gigs Ever lists. From what I’ve heard it certainly sounds epic, but I was having my own OMGZ BEST SHOW EVER moment at Daft Punk, which I wouldn’t have traded for the world. Thus, I can’t tell you what it looked like, but I can tell you it sounded something like this:
MP3: “Map of the Problematique” (Live @ Wembley Stadium) - Muse
“Map of the Problematique” is their newest single and the only track from Black Holes & Revelations that I really loved, so I was considerably pumped to find out that it would be the second song to be destroyed via remix by Does It Offend You, Yeah? after their sufficiently excellent remix of “The Prayer” last January. Nothing terribly brilliant, but fairly bangin’ nonetheless; feel free to get at it below.
MP3: “Map of the Problematique” (Does It Offend You, Yeah? Remix) - Muse
MORE ELECTRO HOTNESS
“D.A.N.C.E.” has been remixed by pretty much anyone with a laptop at this point, but it’s ALL about the MSTRKRFT mix. Their “D.A.N.C.E.” remix joins their “Two More Years” and “Monster Hospital” treatments in the pantheon of untouchable MSTRKRFT mixes and takes an already insanely danceable jam and somehow puts it into an even higher gear. Brilliant.
MP3: “D.A.N.C.E.” (MSTRKRFT Remix) - Justice ((highly recommended))
I really thought I’d said all there was to say about Kate Nash, but then James Mount AKA Metronomy AKA My Favorite Remixer of 2006 decided to drop some hot fire all over “Foundations” and put her into even heavier rotation on the ‘pod. Whereas Metronomy’s generally kept to himself in terms of vocals on his remixes, his “Foundations” mix sees him reworking the chorus with his own “Fing-ger-tips, the cracks in our foundations” refrain and drenching the track in his usual production bells and whistles.
MP3: “Foundations” (Metronomy Remix) - Kate Nash ((highly recommended))
Never did I think I’d see the day that Van She Tech would get in the mix on a Feist track, let alone one as dainty as upcoming single “1-2-3-4″, but sure enough my inbox yielded none other than Van She Tech’s edit of that very track today. Not a banger by any means, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t work quite well. I really like the way these new Feist singles are being handled; first Boys Noize on “My Moon My Man” and now Van She Tech? I could get used to this.
MP3: “1-2-3-4″ (Van She Tech Remix) - Feist ((highly recommended))
Enough MP3s for you? Jesus. Sorry for the lack of activity recently, I’m at one of my various jobs every day and this is the first night I’ve not gone out in two weeks, but I’m doing the best I can.

June 21st, 2007 at 8:19 pm
Funny you posted the coachella Daft Punk set now– I got my hands on the soundboard quality set like two weeks ago and it’s ALL I’ve been listening to.
June 21st, 2007 at 10:06 pm
Jesus. Epic post! I loved reading your review of Daft Punk. That combined with watching the YouTube footage makes a very jealous man of me indeed!
June 21st, 2007 at 10:07 pm
holy shit! sounds ace!
June 21st, 2007 at 10:21 pm
Great post as always. I got a call just before the Daft Punk set that one of my my mates had whimmed it to the festival and landed herself at the front for some electronic loving. So fucking jealous - damned English country life
June 22nd, 2007 at 4:05 am
holy fucking shit that daft punk set looks INCREDIBLE. i NEED to see them live.
June 22nd, 2007 at 5:15 am
I could not of summed up the Daft Punk set any better. I almost cried… Haha
Best hour and a half of my life!
June 22nd, 2007 at 6:09 am
Eee, I saw Daft Punk too. =] At Leeds though. Pretty immense… especially when, after amazingly holding off all day, the rain briefly came down halfway through the set. Pretty special. ALTHOUGH, my favourite band of Wireless were The White Stripes. Phewf! Saw them at London - and my were they ace. Out of interest, which three days did you get to? The only one I missed out on was the Kaiser Chiefs day. A shame - I don’t really care about the Kaisers but the other bands on the bill were REALLY strong.
Also: what did you think of the crowds? Now, I’ve heard that American festival crowds sometimes aren’t as… err… enthusiastic as UK ones, so you might not have the same view as me. But I thought they were wank. Static, unappreciative, and only caring about the headliners. No one jumped and squashed and sang along (generally), unless it was the top-billed band! Laaame. I mean, a travle rug at a festival?! Pur-lease. And it was way, WAY too corporate. Brr. The security were Big Brother-esque.
June 22nd, 2007 at 6:26 am
derek davies i love you
June 22nd, 2007 at 7:45 am
Hey the remixer of harder better faster stronger is called Dirty Disco Youth not Dirty Youth Disco
But the post is awesome!!!
June 22nd, 2007 at 8:24 am
Sarah, I hit up Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. I was only going to rock Thurs and Sat, but Kate Nash and Los Campesinos (both playing on Sunday) were pretty much the only new bands I was dying to see heading into this trip that I didn’t get to see while in London to that point, so I made the financial sacrifice and went to Sunday as well.
I’m bummed about missing Mark Ronson on Friday, but aside from him the only person I really wanted to see was, uhhh, Robyn, so I couldn’t really justify it. Agree with you on the overly-corporate nature of the festival, but I didn’t mind the crowds so much. Sure, people only really flipped their shit for the headliners (and like every band in the XFM tent on Saturday and Sunday), but they were still better than most American crowds I’ve been in.
June 22nd, 2007 at 9:04 am
Im starting to think Metronomy is actually jesus
June 22nd, 2007 at 9:36 am
fantastic post. you are truly my favorite music/concert/whatever reviewer!!
June 22nd, 2007 at 11:18 am
mstrkrft remix is better than the original. thanks for sharing.
June 22nd, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Great post.
I also saw this Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger video today. Amazing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2cYWfq–Nw
June 22nd, 2007 at 12:26 pm
i’m going to see them in toronto in august!
I can’t wait.
June 22nd, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Awesome review. Having attended (and shat my pants at) coachella 06. I TOTALLY know how you were feeling. Me and my buddy were up all night last night watching this awesomely high-quality video of the entire coachella set (synced with the soundboard quality audio). Enjoy:
http://quarterlifeparty.blogspot.com/2007/06/daft-punk-coachella-06-high-quality.html
June 22nd, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Best blog no doubt, Interpols album is leaked btw
June 22nd, 2007 at 3:30 pm
epic post. daft punk were immense, i too stayed at the main stage all day just to be at the front. so worth it, and the broken spine.
June 22nd, 2007 at 4:23 pm
I was there as well, absolutely mind-blowing set from the front row until I got smacked to the back.
I have to agree that the whole thing was overly corporate with sponsorship everywhere - totally unlike Coachella earlier in the year. Even so the bands made up for it. Also I would agree about the crowds being not quite there but even so if you made it to the front or into the oversubscribed XFM tent it was all good.
Kissy Sell Out has got one more amazing remix that you have missed! Bolt Action 5’s Tree Friend Tree Foe has got this absolutely sublime reworking by him.
Did you not come down to Los Camp! at the Scala - there were loads of tickets…
June 22nd, 2007 at 5:23 pm
this post was a post of such monumental musical greatness.
June 22nd, 2007 at 6:54 pm
Were you the guy with the beard that the drunk guy was trying to get everyone to touch before CSS?
June 22nd, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Was it the same exact set as Coachella?
June 23rd, 2007 at 2:08 am
Judging from that video, 20,000 is indeed a very conservative estimate. I’d double that.
June 23rd, 2007 at 11:53 am
A great post and a terrific collection of mp3’s. thank you very much.
June 23rd, 2007 at 12:30 pm
No need to apologize for lack of updates, I’d say that your blog is probably one of the best. Most others have fallen for quantity-vs-quality. I mean, remember when Fluokids posted +good+ tracks?
-E
June 23rd, 2007 at 5:25 pm
[…] Although our mate Derek does the best job possible. Check his review for all kinds of awesomeness. […]
June 24th, 2007 at 4:59 am
It was an unbelievable gig! I’ve been on a high for over a week now. Check my blog for more pics. You ain’t too shabby either!
Peas
June 24th, 2007 at 8:29 am
JEAAAAA-LOOUUS!
wow that sounds awesome.
although i have to say i HATED the MSTRKRFT monster hospital remix
June 24th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
It’s impossible to describe just how good they were.
best concert of my life by far.
better than klaxons or pink floyd or RHCP.
June 24th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
Fucking awesome post, and to share the wealth, here’s an actual (not live) Daft Punk mix of “One More Time” and “Aerodynamic” (although “One More Time” is only mashed in for a very short amount of time) — it’s perfect quality: http://www.zshare.net/audio/24149432d4b9a2/
June 24th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
dude your post is awesome - I can feel your giddy! and to top that off you got to see Kissy on the same night! Damn!
*jealous*
June 25th, 2007 at 1:42 am
any chance to fix the feist track?
June 25th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
Raymond, the “1234″ remix is available at BigStereo (http://this.bigstereo.net/2007/06/21/feist-van-she-tech/). It’s excellent stuff, BTW.
June 26th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
I just got goosebumps again from reading your review - it was by far the best gig i’ve ever been to.. DP totally ruined glasto for me ‘cos nothing there could come even close!
June 26th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
if you never seen justice in live
short extract of their first live.
http://www.wat.tv/video/570587/k3nt-JusticeLiveSE.html
June 28th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
Amazing post, thanks. The Kissy mixes are incredible. In case you don’t know, Chick Fit cuts off early. It’s also available in full here: http://www.kissatlanta.com/blog/?p=663
July 4th, 2007 at 4:06 am
OK OK Good Fucking post but this “Sarah” person needs to respond on here more often b/c well…let’s just face it…her writing doesn’t suck. Anyway - that goddamn Van She Tech remix of 1234 is so hot it deserves like 7 posts of it’s own…kinda like what you did with bloc party…except all you do with this track is just post over and over about people losing their shit about how hot this remix is.
July 4th, 2007 at 11:06 am
Mate…
I could not put it better. I have seen many live acts, lots of festivals, been to ibiza 6 times (even saw faithless at Privelage for the MTV party in ibiza) but Daft Punk at Hyde Park was the best thing i have ever seen, ever!
I thought the encore was perfect… i love Thomas and Falcon - Together and ‘music sound better with you’ just put such a cool spin on the whole show. and my friends and I still talk about the neon suits at the end. i thought i was freaking out a bit, just looked so cool.
They are quite possibly the coolest duo in the world.
Tune of the night… when they dropped ‘Alive’ amazing!
Love the post mate… keep it up!
July 4th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
I was at the o2 wireless show too which was amazing and I was also at the front in a CSS t shirt, (i am a 17 yr boy), a metre or so off centre to the right. anyone see me? i went over the barrier about 2/3s through to have a dance!
July 8th, 2007 at 6:17 am
Charente_Maritime
Jadarite Ulidian MassachusettsUnited States Senate election, 1984 National Emblem of France Lady and the Tramp (1955 film) For Better or For Worse characters Men In Skirts US Air Force officer rank insignia Spring Grove Coquilhatstad
July 11th, 2007 at 5:17 am
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2552422186
What an amazing night. For anyone who hangs out in the ‘good book’ here is a group where people who have witnessed the Daft Punk triangle can share the love
July 18th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
Spectacular review, sir.
I caught their Coachella show so I know what you went through but reading this made me feel like I was there again. Happily I’m seeing them in Los Angeles in three days and then again in Toronto two weeks later.
Also - besides Seb & Kav, we get Ratatat in LA and The Rapture in Toronto.
Yay French robots!
July 28th, 2007 at 7:47 am
I too freaked-the-fuck-out when Daft Punk finally dropped the beat, but it was in Leeds.
September 24th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Man I wish I could’ve seen 20,000 freaking the fuck out.
By the way, if you kids are into the electronic madness, you should check out Firefox AK. Good stuff.
September 25th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
I get my chance in December when they hit OZ. It’s going to be unbelievable.
Great review mate. I’ve watched the set on Youtube, listened to the Coachella soundboard and the Bercy live sets almost every day for the past 3 months so I know the set almost back to front, but still your review makes clear some realy great moments that I’m looking forward to even more now.
Daft Punk for the fucking win.
October 6th, 2007 at 2:08 am
Hey, cool review, but when I right click the Daft Punk songs it leads me to something called servage, where it reads: account suspended.
:(
Please please please post them! :]