Alive 2006/2007

Alive 2006/2007

Concert by Daft Punk
Daft Punk performing at the O2 Wireless Festival in London on June 16, 2007.
Associated album	Human After All
Start date	April 29, 2006
End date	December 22, 2007
Number of shows	48 20 in Europe 14 in North America 5 in Asia 5 in Oceania 4 in South America
Daft Punk concert chronology

Alive 2006/2007 was a concert tour by French electronic music duo Daft Punk, their first tour as a duo since 1997. While the 2006 concerts were not given a formal title, the 2007 performances were advertised as "Alive 2007". The 2006 performances and 2007 tour as a whole was later retroactively named "Alive 2006/2007".^[1]

The tour was met with praise and critical acclaim.^[2][3] The Times described Daft Punk's set as a "memorable sensory spectacle, both dazzling and deafening".^[3]

History

The visuals of the tour were set up by XL Video.^[4] The company provided eight-core Mac Pro units running Catalyst v4 and Final Cut Pro. Daft Punk approached the company with their visual concept for the shows. "They came to us with a pretty fixed idea of what they wanted," said head of XL Video, Richard Burford. "They wanted to mix live video with effects. Using the eight-core Mac Pros, we were able to take in eight digital sources and treat them as video streams. Then they could use Catalyst to coordinate the video with lighting effects and add their own effects in on the fly. The final digital video streams ran to LED screens."^[4]

At the start of 2006, Daft Punk announced plans for a number of special summer shows. On 29 April, Daft Punk performed at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival where they received a jubilant reception for their first U.S. performance since 1997.^[5] Thomas Bangalter had initially been reported as saying that there would be a DVD of their recent live set.^[6] He later emphasized his reluctance for such a release, as the duo felt that online amateur videos of their performances were more compelling than anything captured professionally.^[7] In an interview with the Miami Herald Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo stated that their 11 November appearance at the Bang Music Festival was their final for 2006 and that Daft Punk would conduct more performances in the future.^[8] The band later specified a date for a live show at Bercy, Paris for June 2007.^[9] Also reported were dates at the Wireless Festival and RockNess in June, the Oxegen festival in July and Lollapalooza in August.^{[10][11][12][13]} Daft Punk then announced a world tour called Alive 2007.^[9]

Daft Punk performing at Bercy in June 2007

Daft Punk played at the RockNess Festival by the banks of Loch Ness, Scotland on 10 June 2007 as the headline act in the 10,000 capacity Clash tent. To the crowd's displeasure, the show was delayed, but the crowd gave the duo a jubilant welcome when they appeared. Due to popularity, part of the tent was removed to allow thousands of people outside to see the show.^[14] On 16 June 2007 Daft Punk successfully headlined the third day of the O2 Wireless Festival to positive reaction and reviews. The Times described the set as a "memorable sensory spectacle, both dazzling and deafening" and ThisisLondon declared it "an almost faultless set of relentless electro euphoria".^[3][15]

Daft Punk headlined Stage 2/NME Stage at the Oxegen music festival on 8 July 2007. Their live set was preceded by a showing of the trailer for the film Daft Punk's Electroma. Subsequent reports stated that the Daft Punk appearance was the highlight of the festival. NME wrote that the performance was "a robotic spectacular", while Shoutmouth described the set as "typically triumphant".^[16][17] Four days later, the duo played at Traffic Torino Free Festival in Parco della Pellerina in Turin, Italy.^[18]

Daft Punk headlined the AT&T stage on 3 August 2007, the first night of the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago. Their show there was praised by Pitchfork Media stating that the experience of watching the performance "was a much-needed reminder of the still-potent power of communicative pop."^[19] On 5 August they performed at the International Centre in Toronto followed by an 9 August performance at KeySpan Park in Brooklyn, New York.^[20] The duo also headlined the Vegoose festival in Las Vegas on 27 October. They appeared at the festival along with bands Rage Against the Machine, Muse and Queens of the Stone Age.^[9] At the end of October, Daft Punk performed in Mexico City.^[21] The duo also performed on Friday 2 November 2007 at the Arena Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico and Guadalajara.^[22]

Modular Records announced that Daft Punk would appear in Australia for an event in December 2007 called Never Ever Land.^[23] The announcement addressed years of speculation on whether Daft Punk would visit Australia for live performances. Daft Punk were supported by their regular acts SebastiAn and Kavinsky at the appearances, which had been announced as an extension to the Alive 2007 tour.^[9] Never Ever Land toured to Melbourne at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Perth at the Esplanade, Brisbane at the Riverstage and finally Sydney at the Sydney Showground Main Arena.^[24] A Triple J interview with Pedro Winter (Busy P) revealed that Daft Punk's Sydney appearance on 22 December would be their final show for 2007 and the last to feature the pyramid light scheme.^[25] Tickets for the Australian tour sold more quickly than for any Daft Punk-related event in their history.^[26]

A live album entitled Alive 2007, which featured the group's performance at the Palais Omnisports Bercy in Paris, was released in November 2007.^[2] The album won the Grammy Award for Best Electronic/Dance Album in 2009.

Setlist

1. "Robot Rock" / "Oh Yeah"
2. "Touch It" / "Technologic"
3. "Television Rules the Nation" / "Crescendolls"
4. "Too Long" / "Steam Machine"
5. "Around the World" / "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger"
6. "Burnin'"^* / "Too Long"
7. "Face to Face" / "Short Circuit"
8. "One More Time" / "Aerodynamic"
9. "Aerodynamic Beats" / "Forget About the World"
10. "The Prime Time of Your Life" / "The Brainwasher" / "Rollin' & Scratchin'" / "Alive"
11. "Da Funk" / "Daftendirekt"
12. "Superheroes" / "Human After All" / "Rock'n Roll"

13. "Human After All" / "Together" / "One More Time (reprise)" / "Music Sounds Better with You" [1]

• 1^ Played on 2007 dates only.

Tour dates

References