“Hey I’m going to see Daft Punk in Toronto this weekend,” I told a friend of mine.

“Oh, those are the two guys. They stand behind laptops right?”

“Yeah, kind of.” I replied

It was at that point I decided to leave out that I’d be paying $75 and driving three hours to the show. That the plan included wandering Yonge St. with a cranberry vodka and then high-tailing it out to the airport for a massive hanger party. After which, my group of three would guzzle Tim Horton’s coffee and cruise back south to Rochester.

When a friend refers to Daft Punk as a couple of guys behind a laptop, I realize it’s an uphill conversation and the details of my spontaneous mad dash across the border would not be fully appreciated. Even if technically, Daft Punk is a couple of guys standing behind laptops, it’s an experience that cannot be simplified into a sentence. That’s like saying sex is just two naked people doing what comes naturally. Technically that’s correct, but when’s the last time you had a blast doing anything technical?

We sat in the parking lot and downed another round of vodka. We heard massive bass and crunchy guitar lines leaking from the building. It dawned on the three of us, “That’s The Rapture.” Some kids next to us asked us if we had any trees. Beat it, I thought, that’s kid’s stuff. We have to get in there. We headed for the door.

Entering was fairly quick and we caught most of The Rapture set. They were a perfect open for Daft Punk and the crowd was feeling everything. We setup shop about a hundred feet back, slightly to the right of the stage. The sound was amazing. The Rapture sounded just like they did on CD. Save all the technical mumbo jumbo about song transitions and stage presence and all the academic review material. The facts are these: they played a ton of material from their latest release, Pieces of the People We Love. They rocked hard and the sound was clean.

Sebastian of Ed Banger played a DJ set before Daft Punk went on. It was the one low point of the show. Not that he did anything wrong. His selection was great and his mixes were on point. Consider these facts: Everyone’s pumped and ready to blow the roof off for Daft Punk. Then they turn the house lights on. The DJ’s back by the soundboard and the stage is empty. The set was more than an hour long. I honestly thought it was a CD playing.

The lights went out and the curtain opened. The place erupted. I, like everyone, had heard of the spectacle that is Daft Punk live. I can assure you that it is no over-statement. If astronauts rode motorcycles, they’d dress like Daft Punk. The duo stood atop a pyramid. Behind them was a triangular honeycomb wall, which I could see through. Behind that stood a huge scoreboard-like wall. Everything on stage was capable of lighting up. Everything!

It’s impossible to justify the sight of it all without writing a novel (See the link to the pics below). Without getting too technical, consider these facts: Every song they did was a re-mix of the original. Right when I thought I knew what would happen they flipped the script. The light show went berserk as it was synced to the music flawlessly. The sound was clean and loud and the crowd went crazy.

On the ride home we joked about what they actually did up there. Some one in the car said that if you were able to climb up in that pyramid all you’d see is a red button that said, “Start Show.” And underneath that it was scribbled in marker, “Remember To Dance!”

For two guys standing behind laptops, it was the best show I’d ever seen. I realize now it doesn’t really matter what they actually did up there. Maybe it wasn’t so much a concert as it was some new type of theatrical performance. Without getting all-technical you should know it was a hell of a time.

-Review by www.fishandcrown.com

View Giant Step's pictures from the NY show