Review & Gallery: Madeon Brings ‘Victory Live’ to San Francisco
REVIEW
REVIEW
☆ BY ELIJAH CLOWER ☆
MADEON BROUGHT HIS VICTORY LIVE TOUR to the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium last Friday, and it was one of the best shows I've shot this year from top to bottom. I walked in expecting a good night. I walked out still thinking about it.
I've been with Madeon for a long time. His first official release was "Icarus" back in 2012 and while plenty of remixes floated around before that, "Icarus" was the real starting point. I jumped on board about six months later when "The City" dropped, and by October he'd packaged both into The City EP alongside "Finale" and remixes of all three. Three years later came Adventure, his first studio album and is still home to some of his most recognizable work. Then a four-year gap before Good Faith, which honestly fell off my radar before I ever gave it a proper listen. So when Victory arrived earlier this year, after seven years of waiting, I didn't quite know what to expect. What I got was a completely new era, both sonically and visually, and it's stunning. My favorites off the album are "Dancing On Your Grave," "Fire Away," "Lonely Space Age," "Somebody," "Red Jacket," and "Chaos Magic."
The show design deserves its flowers. The visuals were incredible on their own, but what pushed the night further was the storyline running through the entire set: it gave the show a shape beyond just moving from song to song, and added a whole extra layer to everything happening on stage. That level of production means even more when you consider what touring actually costs. Madeon sits in an interesting spot right now: on the rise, but not yet at the arena scale of a John Summit or Illenium. For an artist in that position to put on a show like this says everything about how much he cares about the craft.
I had the chance to catch his last tour but missed it, so this was my first time experiencing him live. It was worth the wait. If Victory Live comes anywhere near you, go see this show.
