Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
Wednesday 17 July 2019
Photographer : Deb Kloeden (image taken at SITG)
Reviewer : Louie Smith
Foals have done it again. They cantered on in to the Hordern on Wednesday promising a ‘ripper night’ and as expected tore the whole damn roof down. With a reputation as one of the best live acts in the world it was no surprise that the venue was packed to the brim.
Female four-piece, Warpaint, warmed the floor for the first 45 minutes with their hypnotic brand of breezy Californian avant-rock. Layers of vocals streaming in and out of unison accompanied by prominent bass riffs and steady beats lull the crowd into a daze. One punter who wasn’t the wiser to Warpaint described their sound as “music I’d fold my laundry to” and “drone like“, which could have something to do with their monotonal style at times. For a technically tantalising band it’s a shame that they didn’t transcend as favourites ‘Whiteout’ and ‘New Song’ from their album Heads Up attempted to hype the crowd but didn’t quite succeed.
As the lights went down the energy in the room shifted. Foals appeared out of a pink fog surrounded by album artwork inspired ferns. The three-note synth ostinato of ‘On The Luna’ erupted the room and the next hour and a half was spent captivated by Yannis’ obnoxiously daring stage persona.
Rolling into ‘Mountain At My Gates’ and ‘Snake Oil’ one punter was yelling “turn your mic up” which went on deaf ears until we were greeted with ‘Olympic Airways’. The band’s signature staccato guitar rhythms weaved around the other instruments transforming from earlier Antidote tracks to Holy Fire’s biggest hit ‘My Number’. Six songs deep and we’d already heard the contrast of all five Foals albums. Slipping into a quieter moment with the dreamy half speed of ‘Sunday’ the euphoria in the air was breathtaking.
Three reverberated strums and Yannis roared down the a Capella lyrics “I know I cannot be true, I’m an animal just like you. Oh I’ll bleed just a little bit too, oh I’ll bleed just like you” with the whole crowd screaming along with him, tensions building until the clusterfuck of noise had everyone in a frenzy. In true Yannis style he disappears into the crowd popping up amongst seated fans moments later guitar still in hand before making his way back to the stage. With a reputation for crowd antics he seemed reasonably tame on the Yannis scale this time around.
Contrasting into ‘Spanish Sahara’ and ‘Red Socks Pugie’ for a breather, the band manage to capture the essence of the original recordings in their live performance. From the tone of the guitars to the sticks hitting the drums you can tell they’ve spent a lot of time perfecting the accuracy of their live sound. The back end of the set see’s three massive highs from Everything Not Saved Will be Lost before leading into Holy Fire’s ‘Inhaler’ where Yannis instructs everyone to get down and “wait til the last possible moment” before letting all hell loose and ironically creating the opposite of the lyrics Yannis screams – “I can’t get enough space“.
An encore of ‘Balloons’ had everyone on their toes until ‘What Went Down’ absolutely catapulted the night into a whole new realm of madness as the room chanted “when I see a man I see a liar” with Yannis launching into the crowd relying on fans to hold him up by the feet, no doubt working some pretty serious core muscles to stay upright.
Classic Foals closing song ‘Two Steps, Twice’ was the resolution to the night that we all needed. One can only hope that Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 2 will bring the boys back down under for another string of show-stopping shows sooner rather than later!