I’m only 20, but fuck me am I old. And grumpy! When you go to gigs and start picking out things that annoy you more than picking out the things you enjoy, there has to be something wrong: Drunken people standing uncomfortably close to you and the fear of them sloshing their pint down your coolest shirt; Girls complaining about being in mosh pits, even when they chose to stand at the front. And then there’s my personal favourite, out of time hand clapping! I mean if you can’t clap in time to a song that I’m going to assume you know well, as you have paid to see the band who wrote it, then you shouldn’t really be calling yourself a fan. Or perhaps you’re just hugely rhythmically retarded; in which case I hate you equally! All of the above managed to rear their ugly heads tonight.
Perhaps I should mention that Foals were brilliant. Gradually appearing on stage one by one, bass was added to keys, before guitar and finally a massive ovation were added for the attendance of Yannis.
Leading with new single Blue Blood, the crowd proved to be an active one. As was to my pre show foresight, 'Cassius' and 'Balloons' received the biggest crowd reactions and were cunningly blended into one track played back-to-back. To be honest, all the tracks from debut album ‘Antidotes’ seemed to send the crowd into much more of a frenzy than anything from ‘Total Life Forever’ although that said, 'Spanish Sahara' did prove to be the highlight of the piece. As soon as the lights dipped and synth started to loop, the crowd knew what was coming; everybody stopped, watched and appreciated, before going mental at the songs climax.
Perhaps I should also mention that this was my first gig at the O2 Academy and I can’t say I was too impressed with the acoustics of the venue, but Foals did their best and sounded solid throughout.
This being the second time I’ve seen Foals I can guarantee to you that they are a band that will not disappoint you live. Fusing rock synths and rock guitars they have their unique indie dance-punk sound nailed to please fans of synth and fans of indie punk equally. But this night will stick in my head for a reason that was not the music. It will stick in my head because I posed myself the question: Would it be worth spending several thousand pounds on every ticket to a gig, so that I could appreciate it alone, without the aforementioned down sides of most gigs? I decided that if I wasn’t a student who could only afford to live on Tesco value beans, the answer would probably be yes!
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Perhaps I should also mention that this was my first gig at the O2 Academy and I can’t say I was too impressed with the acoustics of the venue, but Foals did their best and sounded solid throughout.
