Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Fleet Foxes Live

So I chose to go to the Fleet Foxes show last night instead of tonight's No Age show. And while I suppose that No Age could be a life-altering concert, I'm more than pleased with my decision. Fleet Foxes were (question: would Fleet Foxes be plural or singular? i.e. Foxes was or Foxes were?) fantastic live. Despite their supposedly ill front man (he had a steaming mug of tea by his stool. Not to mention he was dressed in multiple layers of flannel and wore a knit hat. This was July. In a hot and sweaty club.) they played a very impressive set that in every way lived up to their blogged-out hype. The harmonies on songs like "White Winter Hymnal" were gorgeous, and the band sounded better than they do on their flawless self-titled LP. The aforementioned tea-sippin' front man's vocals blew me away. I can't help but wonder (That sounded like Carrie Bradshaw. Well, I did see the Sex and the City movie two nights ago. Is this the only blog post in history that mentions Fleet Foxes and SatC in the same sentence? Probably.) what he sounds like when he's not congested and coughing. The band was clearly humbled by what they called a "staggering" sold-out crowd. After each song they sincerely thanked the audience, who in turn was very receptive to the music and the quintet. It was a pleasure seeing Fleet Foxes for the first time in a small-scale venue, because I predict that they will be selling out larger clubs in the not-so-distant future.

NPR recorded the show and it can be heard here.

They didn't allow flash photography last night, and my camera is crappy (thus it does not function well without a flash), but I got a few semi-decent shots: