Daft Punk continues to amaze me. They really do have this sort of control over the crowd that few electronic acts (outside of Underworld) have had to date.
We got to the venue just in time to catch the last 20 minutes of the excellent Ratatat. I tell you, these guys have really got something unique. Two guitars and a guy that does keyboards, sequencing and programming. The sound is just massive live, and people were screaming for them. It was one of the best crowd responses I've seen for an opening act. I'm not sure if the other two openers were the first DJ and the one that spun between Ratatat and Daft Punk, but the bill said four acts, and when Ratatat left the stage, they said, "Daft Punk's up next!"
After Ratatat, we stood in line for over 30 minutes to get two beers (not too overpriced at $7) and a water (at $3). We were pretty amped from all the Monster and Skyy we'd been drinking, so we should have really snuck in a pint of something to balance ourselves out, but eh. Lessons learned. We got out of line just to get a spot for Daft Punk, who started promptly at 11 with the Close Encounters of the Third Kind riff. Nice. They went into Robot Rock, then Technologic through a bridge of something from Homework (Oh Yeah?). The set was banging, and the entire crowd was on its feet and DANCING the whole night. Even the upper deck. ESPECIALLY the upper deck. Daft Punk actually sold out this gigantic venue. I think people are finally starting to "get" electronic music after all.
My one slight disappointment is that the set was almost identical to the one they did at Coachella. There were a few different bridges between songs, the tracks themselves were tweaked differently in a lot of places, but the order was pretty much exactly the same, so no surprises. I just went with it. They really did tear the roof off the place, yet again. When they got to Da Funk, near the end of their set, the whole place was pulsating as one giant, throbbing arm, pumping a fist in the air to the beat. I never saw anyone get pushed or anything like that during the entire night. It was a very respectful crowd.
After it was over, we started walking. We asked our friendly neighborhood police officer for directions to Hill Street, where our hotel was, and he pointed us in the right direction. We decided it would be too tough to fight off the other 16,000 in attendance for a cab, so we hoofed it up Hill. We asked a few musicians who were packing up if we'd be safe. They said, "Yeah, just stay positive." We soon knew what they meant. This was skid fucking row, people, rats, cockroaches, the homeless, you name it. But we really did feel pretty safe, all things considered. You can take the boys out of Detroit...
We ended up walking from the Sports Arena all the way to 818 N. Hill in Chinatown where our hotel was. Sadly, we didn't pass a single convenience store on the way, so we ended up beerless when we got back at around two. The excitement and lack of alcohol made us sit up and talk for hours, and when we finally realized it was almost 6:00, we decided to scrap the idea of sleep in favor of getting an early start home.
I finally got to sleep around ten Sunday morning, four hours of nearly-uninterrupted slumber. I'm calling it an early evening tonight. My one regret is that I didn't know if I could bring my camera in or not, so I only got a few pictures with my cel phone.
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