Toronto – Last night’s Foals was an unexpected dose of awesomeness that sparked up an otherwise dull Monday night. In case you haven’t heard, Foals is an Oxford 5 piece post-punk dance rock band that have garnered much hype and fans within their two album existence. Their latest album, Total Life Forever was nominated for the prestigious Mercury Prize and is among the contenders for album of the year. They were in town Monday night to play to a sold out show at Lee’s Palace. I managed to score a ticket the day of the show.
What can you say about a Foals show? It’s a freakin riot. Given their album’s penchant for driving percussive beats and the youngish crowd in the audience, I asked my friend Jess if there would be a mosh pit to which she replied “maybe”. Immediately after the band took the stage and launched in the song Total Life Forever, I realized that a mosh pit was inevitable. These guys were here to rock out.
Let’s talk about their equipment. These guys had wireless guitars! Amazing! I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen this at a small show. Why don’t other bands utilize this? The wireless guitar allowed Yannis Philippakis to wander through the crowd throughout the set and well, to say that Yannis wandered during the set last night was an understatement. At one point, he was standing on the bar at the end of Lee’s Palace, playing his guitar. He could have stopped and grabbed a burrito he was so far back. Speaking of the dude, Foals have quite an intense stage presence. Yannis treads the line of “dirty rocker who can be unexpectedly violent” very well, and that edge added a layer of intensity to the show and a bit of electricity in the air.
However, let’s get back to the equipment. As the set wore on, guitarists Jimmy Smith’s equipment started breaking down. First, it was his amp, then guitar, then amp, then guitar or something in that order. As the equipment started to malfunction, the bands mood changed and they just got angrier and angrier. However, with each equipment failure, the show got increasingly intense, and as a result, the crowd got increasingly rowdier. At one point, Yannis delivered one of the best kicks I have seen at a show. The poor microphone stand didn’t stand a chance. I don’t know if that mic worked after it. It was pretty cool. All this leads me to this conclusion:
To my surprise, a lot of the set focused on their debut record Antidotes with some sprinklings here and there from Total Life Forever. I guess it didn’t matter in the end as each song was hammered with the driving beats from drummer Jack Bevan. Spanish Sahara was as epic as you expected it to be and songs like Olympic Airways and Cassius gave the enthusiastic crowd reason to jump around. Hell, I would argue any song was good enough reason to jump around.
In conclusion, the show was unexpectedly awesome. The energy from both the band and the crowd was inspiring for a Monday night and anyone who thinks Toronto concert goers are just a bunch of swaying crossed arm deadbeats should attend a Foals show the next time they are in town.
Ps. A big thank you to Lee’s Palace for turning on the A/C halfway through the show.
Total Life Forever
Olympic Airways
Miami
Blue Blood
Balloons
After Glow
2 Trees
Alabaster
Spanish Sahara
Red Socks Pugie
Electric Bloom
Encore:
The French Open
Two Steps, Twic
Foals – Spanish Sahara by subpop