I saw Foals for the 3rd or 4th time last night, headlining at First Ave's Mainroom.
Set List below of course.
This concert will be remembered by me for a few different things. Probably first and foremost from my commute down to First Ave. I'm driving West on I-94 and it's raining out. Not heavily, but consistently coming down like it did all of yesterday.
I get to around the area of Huron Blvd and suddenly a somewhat sizable Yellow SPIDER drops off the Ceiling right in front of me on the driver's side.
I was beyond startled, but I immediately slowed down and blew at it as I had no interest in touching it with my bare hands.
The Spider I may have killed or it may have wandered off. I saw it in the little hole on the inside of the Driver's side door near the door handle and power window control.
I hope it's gone, but the experience and idea of what was avoided thankfully never left my mind the whole night, feeling like I dodged a bullet in some ways.
The show though it self was another epic, energetic fiesta of a kind that only Foals does so well. Yannis back when I saw them last at First Ave (2013), at least once walked throughout the mainroom's floor and upstairs to the 2nd level where I sat.
Well he didn't quite do that, but multiple crowd surfing moments of ecstasy, and the climax was him climbing to the 2nd level bars in front of the left side of the stage and basically doing a TRUST FALL into the crowd.
Very much in the vein of Paul Meany from Mutemath or even Darroh from Fair to Midland, almost going for the daredevil antics to great success.
The set list was great as they did a lot of the Everything Saved Will Not Be Lost Part 1 music. Syrups probably being my favorite, although I kind of feel as incredible as the ending of that track is, I could see at least live having them extending the build more and more live to go on for at least a couple more minutes. Even if Yannis just sings "Na Na Na" or "La La La" without any lyrics.
Spanish Sahara is always a showstopper, Black Gold as well of course. The What Went Down tunes I had yet to see were as if not more heavy live. Yannis pulled off some immense screams on them.
And then anything from Antidotes I'm thrilled with. Two Steps Twice is their classic show closer (when Yannis did the Trust Fall). The energy, groove, intensity, etc never fails to grab me.
While I don't know if I think this show was better than the 1 in 2013, they very much seem to taking the baton from Mutemath to be a consistent great live band who are almost a can't miss.
Now we can just anticipate Everything Saved Will Not Be Lost Part 2 coming in September and hopefully no more spiders creeping me out in my car while I'm driving to Foals concerts.
also the 2 openers, Omni and Preoccupations has some moments. Preooccupations used to be known as Viet Kong, sound familiar and I mean to check out now. Their sound, especially the style their singer has stood out in some ways. The last song or 2 they did I was getting into as it was kind of epic. The synths almost reminded me of Wolf Parade and even some of the Cale Parks Indietronica stuff I've been vibing on lately.
On the Luna
Mountain at My Gates
Snake Oil
Olympic Airways
My Number
Black Gold
Spanish Sahara
Syrups
Providence
Sunday
Red Socks Pugie
Exits
In Degrees
White Onions
Inhaler
Encore:
What Went Down
Two Steps, Twice
