Concert Review: Phantogram Goes Grand Theft Auto At King’s Theatre

We all got a little bit of ho in us,” sang lead singer Sarah Barthel while twerking on the floor and nuns praying in the backdrop. It was the perfect anti-thesis and complete statement of women and our sexual desires. We still live in a world/ society that refuses to let women have say over their bodies, which makes the idea of them wanting or loving sex feel foreign. We are the objects: not the objectors or projectors of sex. At King’s Theatre, with moody lighting, smoke, and dark, visual effects Phantogram felt like a trip into a Popacalypse. 

I had visions watching Phantogram. Their music felt like Courtney Love was the lead singer of Josie & The Pussycats or Ariana Grande jumped on a pterodactyl and flew into Hell to teach sinners how to twerk and do high-ponytails. Yeah, when I say visions, I mean visions. Their music is so badass, you feel like pop-culture reeling through your head like one of those motor-bikes from Tron. They are simultaneously mainstream and counter-culture, which oddly matched King’s Theatre’s aesthetic history. As a massive staple of Brooklyn and the black community’s history within the BK, King Theatre is stunning, rich, and testament of how you survive by building yourself against the darkness others try to make you believe is you: a very Phantogram message. 

Phantogram – You Don’t Get Me High Anymore (Official Music Video)

I will say this repeatedly but King’s Theatre has an amazing soundsystem that helps you hear every elements of a song. It is as if they can put a cricket breathing on a volume of 35 million. This was a luxury considering that Phantogram’s music makes you feel like a character Grand Theft Auto. All you want to do is steal some cars, burn some trash cans, and act like your mother never told you sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll are a deadly combination. Yet, it was Barthel’s introduction to a new song, “Ceremony,” and her dedication of it to her sister, which was incredibly powerful.

Phantogram – Mister Impossible (Official Lyric Video)

As she cried, “If you are thinking of suicide, Please Stay!” I got teary-eyed. I have experienced the suicide of a family member, and you always hear, on television, the guilt you feel at not being able to do more. “What could I have said? Didn’t I see the signs? Why was my love not enough?” are questions that dance around your mind as you wonder how someone you loved, and swore you told them that, took themselves away from you. Sarah cried so much during the song, and it explained the three year hiatus Phantogram has been on. Promising a new album soon, Ceremony was a good sign that not only will their new music be good but it will be healing.  Click Here For More Information On KIng’s Theatre Click Here.