Concert Review: Empire Of The Sun (Coastal Credit Union Music Park)

BY MAUI CABRAL

I’ve photographed some wild shows. I’ve photographed heavy shows, emotional shows, legendary artists and productions where I thought I’d already seen just about everything you could possibly put on a stage. Then I photographed Empire of the Sun. And for one night at Coastal Credit Union Music Park, it felt like someone opened a door to another universe and invited all of Raleigh inside. This wasn’t just a concert. It was color. Fashion. Art. Dance. Electronic music. Theater. It was fucking beautiful. And somehow, I had a camera in my hands for it.

Opening the night was Midnight Generation, a Mexican band whose sound pulls heavily from funk, disco, synth-pop, and the kind of grooves that immediately make standing still nearly impossible. There’s a nostalgic quality to their music without it ever feeling stuck in the past. You hear pieces of disco and funk mixed with modern electronic production, creating something that feels equally at home decades ago or right now. And they were the perfect introduction to this particular night. There was no easing into this show. The dancing started early. The colors started appearing. And you could already tell this crowd came to have a good fucking time.

Then Polo & Pan took over. The French electronic duo of Paul Armand-Delille and Alexandre Grynszpan (yes I sat here for 15 minutes trying to pronounce both of their names, lol) have built their identity around a wonderfully strange combination of house, disco, tropical sounds, psychedelia, and pop. And live? It just makes sense. Their set didn’t feel like an opener simply occupying the space before the headliner. It felt like its own world. There was this effortless happiness surrounding everything they were doing. The music was playful. The crowd was moving. Coastal Credit Union Music Park started feeling less like an amphitheater and more like one giant dance floor. That’s when I started realizing how different this night was going to be from what I’m normally standing in front of. No breakdowns. No circle pits. No blood coming out of a hardcore pit. Just thousands of people dancing together. I fucking loved it.

THEN THE SUN ROSE. There really isn’t a normal way to describe Empire of the Sun walking onto a stage. Because nothing about Empire of the Sun is supposed to feel normal. The project was formed in Australia by Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore, combining electronic music and pop with an enormous visual identity that became impossible to separate from the music itself. Then came Walking on a Dream. That album and especially its title track introduced millions of people around the world to this strange, colorful universe they’d created. Songs like “Walking on a Dream” and “We Are the People” became bigger than electronic-pop hits. They’re songs that can instantly transport you back to a certain place or time. But listening to Empire of the Sun and seeing Empire of the Sun are two completely different experiences. Because once Luke Steele walked onto that stage... Holy shit. THIS IS WHAT A CAMERA WAS MADE FOR. The costumes. The dancers. The lighting. The movement. The silhouettes. Every time I thought I’d found the photograph I wanted, something else happened. Another pose. Another costume. Another explosion of light. Another moment where Luke Steele looked less like a musician and more like some kind of character that had stepped out of a science-fiction movie. As a photographer, it was sensory overload in the best possible way. Normally I’m watching for a musician to step into the right light. I’m anticipating a jump. A scream. A guitar swing. Something I’ve learned to recognize after spending so much time photographing rock and metal. Empire of the Sun threw that playbook out the fucking window. I wasn’t photographing a band simply performing songs. I was photographing a world being created in front of me.

Then there are those moments where the photographer disappears for a second and the fan takes over. Hearing those songs live was one of them. You realize just how long some of this music has existed in your life. You’ve heard it in movies. At parties. On road trips. Through headphones. You’ve heard those melodies hundreds of times without ever really thinking there might come a day when you’d be standing directly in front of the person responsible for them. Yet there I was. Looking through my viewfinder at Luke Steele. Empire of the fucking Sun. Right in front of my camera. I’ll never get used to that feeling. And I don’t want to. What I loved most about this night wasn’t even one individual song. It was looking around. Everybody was dancing. Everybody was smiling. People were dressed up. People were completely lost in the production. For a couple of hours, whatever existed outside the gates of Coastal Credit Union Music Park didn’t really matter. We were somewhere else.

Midnight Generation started the party. Polo & Pan turned the amphitheater into a dance floor. And Empire of the Sun took whatever reality we had left and completely destroyed it. In the best possible way. Photography keeps putting me in situations where I catch myself thinking, "How the hell did I get here?" This was another one. I’ve stood feet away from some of the heaviest bands in the world. I’ve photographed artists I grew up listening to. I’ve photographed heroes, legends and people I once thought I’d only ever see from somewhere deep inside the crowd. But this was different. Empire of the Sun reminded me that a live performance doesn’t have to be aggressive to completely overwhelm you. Sometimes it’s beautiful. Sometimes it’s strange. Sometimes it’s a thousand colors exploding around you while thousands of people dance underneath the North Carolina sky. And sometimes you’re lucky enough to be standing in front of all of it with a camera. Midnight Generation brought the funk. Polo & Pan brought Raleigh together on one giant dance floor. And Empire of the Sun brought us somewhere else entirely. I walked into Coastal Credit Union Music Park expecting to photograph a concert. I walked out feeling like I’d photographed a fucking movie. And looking back through these images, that’s probably the best compliment I can give it. For one night, Raleigh wasn’t Raleigh anymore. We were all just... walking on a dream.

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JOSH "MAUI" CABRAL

Hey! I'm Maui. Originally from Queens, New York, now making Raleigh, NC my new home. I'm a touring photographer and Nomadic Motorcycle Rider, obsessed with seeing the world through different lenses!

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