In March of 2014, The xx took up residency at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City for 25 live performances, designed to test the perceptions of intimacy and scale. Across 10 days, each 50-minute event started with the band and a crowd of only 45 spectators installed together in a small, sunken white square. The band and the audience faced each other as the ceiling rose and eventually fell away, revealing the 55,000-square-foot Drill Hall in full — a vast, shapeless space, illustrated by smoke and projected light.
As musicians, The xx were always known for their quiet intrigue and nuanced emotional songwriting, but in their hands, the Armory became a voyeuristic, dreamlike space and helped redefine their music and their relationship to the audience that surrounds them.
Documenting the band throughout, it was not uncommon to see audience members adjust their emotions with the environment, as with the music: surprise into heartbreak into euphoria. On one night, Alan Cumming, the actor, during a break from playing the Emcee in Cabaret, lunged around the stage’s perimeter, tracing the band’s steps. Or Kim Kardashian West, stacked high in heels, removing her shoes and resting on the floor, inches away from the band members. But in every show, I watched as The xx and their audience worked together to create a deeply personal shared live experience.
This performance of Shelter attempts to capture that space and the transfer of energy that took place in it and and was released as part of the ‘Young then’ Archive - an online resource that will archive the entire history, and future, of the Young label.
Looking back, Romy Madley Croft stated, “This show is still one of the most incredible experiences we’ve had as a band, it felt like being on stage at a theatre, rather than a gig and the audience was as much part of the show as we were, we never knew what would happen! The intimacy was intense and beautiful, it was uncomfortable at times but I think that’s what made it even more magic. There were times I looked up and caught eyes with some of my musical heroes, only meters away, I did my best to remain calm and not show how fast my heart was beating! When we’ve met people who were at that show, even if we are strangers I feel like we are forever connected by that moment in New York.”
In March of 2014, The xx took up residency at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City for 25 live performances, designed to test the perceptions of intimacy and scale. Across 10 days, each 50-minute event started with the band and a crowd of only 45 spectators installed together in a small, sunken white square. The band and the audience faced each other as the ceiling rose and eventually fell away, revealing the 55,000-square-foot Drill Hall in full — a vast, shapeless space, illustrated by smoke and projected light.
As musicians, The xx were always known for their quiet intrigue and nuanced emotional songwriting, but in their hands, the Armory became a voyeuristic, dreamlike space and helped redefine their music and their relationship to the audience that surrounds them.
Documenting the band throughout, it was not uncommon to see audience members adjust their emotions with the environment, as with the music: surprise into heartbreak into euphoria. On one night, Alan Cumming, the actor, during a break from playing the Emcee in Cabaret, lunged around the stage’s perimeter, tracing the band’s steps. Or Kim Kardashian West, stacked high in heels, removing her shoes and resting on the floor, inches away from the band members. But in every show, I watched as The xx and their audience worked together to create a deeply personal shared live experience.
This performance of Shelter attempts to capture that space and the transfer of energy that took place in it and and was released as part of the ‘Young then’ Archive - an online resource that will archive the entire history, and future, of the Young label.
Looking back, Romy Madley Croft stated, “This show is still one of the most incredible experiences we’ve had as a band, it felt like being on stage at a theatre, rather than a gig and the audience was as much part of the show as we were, we never knew what would happen! The intimacy was intense and beautiful, it was uncomfortable at times but I think that’s what made it even more magic. There were times I looked up and caught eyes with some of my musical heroes, only meters away, I did my best to remain calm and not show how fast my heart was beating! When we’ve met people who were at that show, even if we are strangers I feel like we are forever connected by that moment in New York.”
In March of 2014, The xx took up residency at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City for 25 live performances, designed to test the perceptions of intimacy and scale. Across 10 days, each 50-minute event started with the band and a crowd of only 45 spectators installed together in a small, sunken white square. The band and the audience faced each other as the ceiling rose and eventually fell away, revealing the 55,000-square-foot Drill Hall in full — a vast, shapeless space, illustrated by smoke and projected light.
As musicians, The xx were always known for their quiet intrigue and nuanced emotional songwriting, but in their hands, the Armory became a voyeuristic, dreamlike space and helped redefine their music and their relationship to the audience that surrounds them.
Documenting the band throughout, it was not uncommon to see audience members adjust their emotions with the environment, as with the music: surprise into heartbreak into euphoria. On one night, Alan Cumming, the actor, during a break from playing the Emcee in Cabaret, lunged around the stage’s perimeter, tracing the band’s steps. Or Kim Kardashian West, stacked high in heels, removing her shoes and resting on the floor, inches away from the band members. But in every show, I watched as The xx and their audience worked together to create a deeply personal shared live experience.
This performance of Shelter attempts to capture that space and the transfer of energy that took place in it and and was released as part of the ‘Young then’ Archive - an online resource that will archive the entire history, and future, of the Young label.
Looking back, Romy Madley Croft stated, “This show is still one of the most incredible experiences we’ve had as a band, it felt like being on stage at a theatre, rather than a gig and the audience was as much part of the show as we were, we never knew what would happen! The intimacy was intense and beautiful, it was uncomfortable at times but I think that’s what made it even more magic. There were times I looked up and caught eyes with some of my musical heroes, only meters away, I did my best to remain calm and not show how fast my heart was beating! When we’ve met people who were at that show, even if we are strangers I feel like we are forever connected by that moment in New York.”