Near the end of 2024, NY electro-rock duo Phantogram released their 5th album, Memory of A Day. After listening on loop for days and declaring it a favorite of the year, we were lucky enough to have Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter in our Setlist.fm studio to tell us stories about a few of their favorite live music memories. In addition to their creative masterpieces produced as Phantogram, they also collaborated with rapper Big Boi to make Big Grams and put out an EP in 2015. Phantogram are headed out on their Running Through Colors tour in just a couple days (dates below) but first, enjoy their show memories:
Radiohead
Sarah: It was their In Rainbows tour, a very meaningful album for us at the time. We were starting Phantogram.
Josh: Yeah, we had just started makin' music together.
Sarah: The plan, get up to the front row no matter what. We got as close as we could, but we also smoked a joint, and got really claustrophobic. We ended up losing each other for a little bit, but we were texting each other and just being like, "Holy shit, this is amazing!"
Josh: I don't condone drug use, but if you smoke weed, I would get really high at a Radiohead show- but you don't have to-
Sarah: Also, you don't have to.
Josh: It makes you high. You don't need drugs to have fun.
Sarah: You don't, you just need Radiohead.
Josh: Yeah, you just need Thom Yorke...
Sarah: Remember he was doin' that wiggle dance he does?
Josh: Yeah, he was like a little... Bein' a little wiggle worm up there. And then Jonny Greenwood, you couldn't see his face and...nhis hair’s all like, bouncin' around. What a cool band, huh?
Sarah: They're really cool.
Outkast
Sarah: It was their reunion tour, we played I think the night before or something. Being in a band with Big Boi, from Outkast, we were surely to stay when he invited us to come see Outkast perform. We were in the studio with Big, in Atlanta, at Stankonia, when André came in for the first time and they hadn't seen each other in a while. And they had this conversation that we witnessed that was really important for this tour to actually happen. Made amends, and we got to just hang out with them there. And André came in, he wanted to meet us 'cause we were workin' on the album with Big.
Josh: No, he listened to my beats.
Sarah: He offered me his green beans. It was so, it was unreal. I wasn't hungry, but I ate those green beans and we chatted and it was-
Josh: Yeah, like if André 3000 offers you green beans, you take the green beans.
Sarah: You take the green beans.
Josh: So we're side stage at the Outkast concert.
Sarah: After the show was done, I'll never forget it, André 3000 just walked up for some reason just to my sister, and gave her a huge, sweaty hug. (laughing). And he's like, "Alright, yeah, what's up? Hey, man!" My sister was just beside herself. It was a holy shit-your-pants moment.
Nine Inch Nails
Josh: This must have been 2019, at the Hollywood Bowl. [Ed. note: Probably 2014] Always wanted to see ‘em. It sounded really amazing, they were such a tight band, but the visuals with everything was... I'd never seen anything like it. They had like, what, five or six guys wearing all-black Lycra, or skin suits, so they blended in with the background, carrying around these screens, and there were visuals on them and they put 'em together and the visuals would come together.
Sarah: Different shapes too, and angles.
Josh: There was one song where everything went away and thousands of strobe lights just all behind them, just goin'. And we do this a lot too, but I love moments in songs where it is completely visually assaulting and it makes the hair on your skin rise.
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Catch Phantogram on the Running Through Colors tour starting 1/15 in Las Vegas. More dates and details here.
