Anthony Gonzalez has always pushed the boundaries of his musical imagination with his band M83. With a slew of albums to contest from, the band played a very intimate late night set during ACL at The Moody Theatre. About to embark on the second leg of the Junk Tour Gonzalez and company entertained the capacity crowd with their electronic-dance music we have all come to love. Mixing new and old Gonzalez commanded the stage like a conductor giving us a emphatic edition of "Reunion" to open up the set. Hits such as "Oblivion", "We Own The Sky", and "Midnight City", had everybody snap-chatting away for that precious fifteen second of video they will probably only view once in their life. Gonzalez's unwillingness and energy are truly captured in every song, even when they slow things down, particularly with "Wait" which had the crowd singing in the chorus in perfect unison. The buzz amongst the crowd was heard saying it was the best M83 show they had encountered. A great show indeed, we couldn't argue with that.

They played an earlier set the day before at ACL, but a band like M83 needs to be seen a cozy club/venue to get the full experience of their lighting presentation, it brings a whole new feel to their live show. Such was the case at what I consider one of the best venues in the country. If you ever get a chance to see a show here we highly recommend it. (In fact we will be back here later this week for live tapings from Band of Horses and Foals).

Anthony Gonzalez of M83 (Photo Credit: Matt Smith)

As the sun was setting on Tuesday Anthony Gonzalez, front man and genius behind M83, walked onto the stage at Red Rocks, and opened their set with one of their hits, “Reunion”. The crowd was instantly dancing and singing along, and if you’re at all familiar with M83’s music, you can safely assume that the rest of the evening continued that same way. Gonzalez is a wizard when it comes to synth-heavy, 80’s pop influenced songs that can make anyone bob their head along.

M83 with brilliant visuals at Red Rocks (Photo Credit: Matt Smith)

M83 has been on tour for most of 2016 and will continue to jump between the U.S. and Europe for the rest of the year, closing out this lengthly run in the city from which they hail: Paris,France at the end of November. Red Rocks was alive with synth “beeps”, “boops”, “pew-pews”, through songs like “Wait”, “We Own The Sky”, “Oblivion”, and fan favorite “Midnight City”, and tracks from the newly released album Junk. M83 managed to pair each individual track with an incredible light show all it’s own. The night started with lights hanging behind the band that changed colors along with the beat of the music, but as the set progressed on to slightly slower tracks, the lights continued to morph as well. Lights that appeared to simply be hanging suddenly started rotating and swirling - almost dancing along to the track. Once the synthy, etherial sounds gave way to dance beats once again, even more lights appeared, projecting onto the landmark red rocks behind the stage. Gonzalez paused a few times in between tracks with what appeared to be a look of awe as he examined the crowd and massive monoliths, adoring the beautiful amphitheatre and thanking his fans.

M83 playing a few classics as well as newer material off their recent album (Photo Credit: Matt Smith)

M83 ended their set with “Outro”, the last song from their 2011 album Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. Gonzalez and crew stepped off the stage a mere one hour after beginning their set. While it felt like a short set, the troupe returned with an extended 5 song encore, appeasing the crowd as they continued to cheer for more.

-Words Matt Smith & Maddie Casey / Photos: Matt Smith