Fleet Foxes @ The Grand Ballroom at Manhattan Center, 10-5-2008

Brilliant.

I spent most of May listening to Sun Giant and then Fleet Foxes, and I thus had all the recorded songs stuck in my head before the concert even started. It's great to go to a show and be so familiar with the material that you can know the names right off and then be surprised at the subtle changes. What really made the experience was it's personable nature. Take it, I was right up in front, but the crowd was so respectful that when Robin decided to play two solo bits completely acoustically you could have and didn't hear a single cell phone in the audience. It was as if, despite their fame, I was watching them play for a group of my friends at a bar around the corner.

The vocals were pretty much perfect even during the few times when a band member decided to improvise a harmony, and without the reverb (during Robin's two solo songs) that has almost defined their style, nothing was lost. This all resounded during the a-capella sections which had me drifting off to whatever fanciful location they were mentioning at the time. The banter also had me literally laughing between songs; I'd almost forgotten how friendly a band could be. Fleet Foxes are more than suited to play live shows given their whole nature. I'll keep listening to their recordings, but I'm not sure I'll ever get the same musical bliss that I got from seeing them live.

Setlist
Sun Giant/Sun Rises
Drops in the River
English House
White Winter Hymnal
Ragged Wood
Your Protector
Crayon Angels (Judee Sill Cover)
Oliver James
Quiet Houses
He Doesn't Know Why
Mykonos
Katie Cruel (Traditional) - unplugged!
Tiger Mountain Peasant Song - unplugged!
Silver City - new song!
Blue Ridge Mountains
via madeablog

Here's my glowy picture of Robin.

And Skye played with a bow.

Psych Rock @ The Cake Shop, 10-2-2008

I came to the Cake Shop taking Free Williamsburg's suggesstion to see Evangelicals, but first I had to to see two surprisingly fun bands.

The first was Mysteries of Modern Science which uses string instrumentation to realize pop chords and themes classically. Altogether they are a bassist, mandolinist, violinist, two cellists, and a drummer. Minus the mandolin, every instrument plays a single line so there is much more of an emphasis on counterpoint rather than simple chords. It's as if each plays it's own melody. MoMS claims post rock as an influence which doesn't shock, but unlike most groups of the genre, they add lyrics. Still, though the vocals don't drown out the instruments, they are a bit of a weak point.

Second was Parenthetical Girls. The vocalist, Zac Pennington, liked banter and theatrics. He spent a bit of the time walking through the crowd and laying down beats on the floor, bar, and wall. The others stayed put and chimed in with percussion (was it a xylophone?). The major melodies lent themselves to goofy rock akin to Evangelicals but came out sounding more dreamy.

Evangelicals on the other hand were much noisier in concert than in their recordings. The overall sound was much less pure, and it came off more destructive than anything. Still, they put on a good show even if it wasn't what I expected.