abby and i ventured out in dreary weather saturday night and got the full experience of wet hair and clothes mixed with a packed-to-capacity show with no air. yum. let me tell you. we arrived around door time, but the line was so long that by the time we even got in the doors the first band, the naked and famous were on their second to last song. i hadn't heard much about the band before the show but liked what i'd heard online after a quick listen. they sounded pretty good live; enough for me to check em out a little more in depth when i got home. they're from new zealand too, so automatic cool points based solely off accents.
next up was freelance whales. i'm genuinely torn when it comes to this band. there are groups out there who create really fantastic albums but can't put everything together in a live setting. then there are the bands who produce solid albums but absolutely blow you away at shows. freelance whales are the former, while foals are the latter. both have their pros and cons i guess, but in my opinion you should be able to play live what you "played" in your recordings. so while i really enjoy listening to freelance whales on my ipod and laptop, they just miss the mark in love settings. not to mention they caled us kansas city! not cool, not cool. i'd seen them about a year ago in a small columbia club with hardly anyone in attendance and they were just 'eh.' they were a brand new band though, so i wrote it off as lack of experience. then all of the sudden they blew up. they've played every big-name festival in the last year. they were featured in the video introducing new twitter. they're in a starbucks commercial. and purely from a record standpoint they deserve it. but when it comes to raw talent in a live setting, i'm not quite sure they deserve it. all that being said though, i enjoyed their set and had a good time singing and bouncing along. they just need a handful of vocal lessons and maybe some more practice time.
and finally foals. like i mentioned above, foals is one of those bands that sounds great on a record and mind blowing live. i'm new to the foals train, so i had no idea what to expect at the show. but hoooooly shiiiit. to put it, err, eloquently, i believe i tweeted something to the effect of "holy fuck. just got mind fucked by foals." i've never seen so much passion and excitement come from a band on stage. lead singer yannis (besides having a gorgeous beard and curly locks, and besides the fac that the audience endearingly sang him happy birthday) has such a unique voice and he is flawless. he's also a little crazy; he noodles around on his guitar like it's nothing, all while hopping around stage and even getting on monitors and running around the entire venue. at one point he was on the back of seats, on top of tables, was in the back of the room on top of a pinball machine. yeah. bad ass. the crowd was hanging on to every word and dancing up a storm. it felt like they played for hours yet it wasn't near enough. i could have stood there all day and watched them play. i have a feeling they could jam for hours and deviate so far from what they started with and still sound fantastic. this was one of the best shows i've been to this year and it's going to take a lot to top it.
www.thenakedandfamous.com -- female vocals, indie with techno influence, sexy foreign accents!
www.freelancewhales.com -- new york natives, sparkly, tinkly, indie pop music that makes you go "aww"
foals.co.uk -- oxford, england. need i say more?
