The segment on Daft Punk within the Coachella documentary: 20 years in the desert is vital in showcasing their comeback to the spotlight in 2006. They hadn’t performed for a live audience in a handful of years and since releasing their new music. In support, the inclusion of first-hand encounters of their live set is paramount in understanding their effect on concert viewers. Daft Punk’s famous pyramid stage was originally debuted during their 2006 Coachella set, credited with the rise of high-energy, LED-Heavy EDM shows. 

^[1]YouTube Editors. “Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert ,” April 10, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjwilAja7Lc.

^[2]daftpunkalive. (2021, October 1). Daft punk – around the world (official music video remastered). YouTube. Retrieved April 19, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0HSD_i2DvA

Daft Punk started out their pyramid performance with slower, more techno tunes from their new album “Human After All”,  which they slowly mixed into the crescendo of the performance, which included many of their most well known songs. Not only did this slow buildup of the performance rile up the audience, but their effortless live mashup and mixes of songs from different albums made the show seem very fluid. The crescendo of the performance came with a mashup of “Around the World” and “Harder Better Faster Stronger”, which perfectly fed the audience’s building anticipation. At the end of “Around the World”, Daft Punk slowly introduced the iconic “Harder Better Faster Stronger” baseline and synth-heavy melody, and once the legendary hook of the song kicked in, the audience was sent “into complete and utter pandemonium and chaos”. This whole time, Daft Punk’s pyramid lit up and changed with the music, aiding in the buildup to the crescendo of the performance. The 16×16 foot pyramid was covered in over 3,000 LED lights, which essentially created an interactive 3D screen for the duo. Because of the 3,000 LED display on the pyramid, essentially any video or visual could be played on the pyramid and the duo utilized many different animations like of rockets blasting off and futuristic light tunnels that entranced the audience. While this is a common aspect of live performance currently, Daft Punk’s light display was one of the biggest ever used in a performance at the time and their pyramid was hugely influential on live performance throughout the 200os as a whole.

^[3]Getty Images Editors, April 28, 2006, “Daft Punk 2006 Coachella Music Festival”, https://www.gettyimages.com/search/2/image?family=creative&phrase=daft%20punk

Through this performance, audiences were given a larger view of the duo’s discography as a whole, and what their body of music had to offer to the live performance scene. Through their innovative use of blending and composition in this performance, Daft Punk effortlessly transition from song to song, keeping audiences engaged the whole time. Bangalter claims that when he and de Homem-Cristo perform, they “compare it to a Broadway musical… every night is a different performance, even though it’s the same music …. it’s also like a movie in that you focus on an experience rather than the ego of the performer”. Through this quotation, it is clear that Daft Punk takes a very inventive look at performance and caters their live shows towards giving the listener a legendary experience that they won’t forget, and that is exactly how fans remember performances like the original 2006 Coachella Pyramid show.