LIVE: Super Furry Animals - Club Quattro – Osaka, Japan, Nov 24th 2009
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Written by Whitters
Photo Credits: Huw 'Bunf' Bunford - Flickr.com
Ahh SFA, one of those bands that you never quite know what to expect when you go to watch them. As I’ve pretty much liked the band ever since they released the major debut Fuzzy Logic, I have grown up with them and watched them evolve from the young fresh faced happy go lucky Brit pop pioneers that they started out as, to these five middle aged men, who three of which have more hair between them than an entire army of Ewoks and two with less hair than Harry Hill.
The music has always been what the Furries are about. They have evolved drastically since their debut, and although the albums since have been all very different, they have never lost their identity, and despite flirting with major success here and there, with hits like “Ice Hockey Hair” “Juxtaposed Wit U” and the hit which almost broke them in America “Hello Sunshine” they have always remained a sort of cult band in their native UK, with a mainstream audience.
Cult band aside, they have always been a darling of critics around the world, and their sound on record still sounds as fresh and new as they ever did, and indeed they don’t show signs of waning, and anybody who has listened to the innovative latest album “Dark Days/Light Years” will tell you.
So tonight, they took to the stage in my adopted home of Japan….a country which fell in love with the SFA way back when started in 1996 when they embarked on a Japanese tour equipped with their famous cute cuddly toy outfits and crazy costumes, something which the Japanese crowds lapped up.
I arrived with two friends in tow, two North American friends, one Canadian, the other from New York, who admittedly had only ever heard one song by them on the past, of course “that” song from the OC “Hello Sunshine”. I wasn’t sure how the turnout would be, strangely in fact, it felt like I was watching one of my friends bands from back home, I’m not even sure how the new album faired in Japan, and I had this awful feeling that they would be a weak crowd awaiting them, boy was I wrong. Club Quattro, is a very intimate venue, but it’s a venue where many major Western bands play on the Osaka leg of their respective Japanese tour, and tonight it was full. I was so happy! Fans were gathering around the stage, some wearing t-shirts from the aforementioned 1996 tour, and the atmosphere was electric. They did take a while to come on stage, they were due on at 7pm (yes Japanese gigs start and finish ridiculously early) and they eventually came out around 7.20….which isn’t very Japanese at all.
I was eager to see what kind of set-list they had put together for the Japanese fans, and eager to see what crazy costumes and gimmicks they would bring with them, but there wasn’t much of that tonight. Just five men their instruments, and lots of facial hair. Lead singer, the enigmatic Gruff, was the last on stage holding a placard with “Applause” written on it, he then turned it around so it had the Japanese characters on it, the crowd loved it.
They kicked off proceedings with the first track of the Phantom Power LP “Slow Life” which is a great set opener, it shows both sides to the Furries mad musical world, and lets the new comers to the SFA army know exactly what they are about.
Soon after they flourished with their crowd favorites like Golden Retriever, Hometown Unicorn and Rings Around the World. The crowd were enjoying it from the off, and so was I. The last SFA show I had seen was a few years back in 2006 in Ireland, and this was a great reminder to me to what these guys can do. My two friends were already into them, and I could feel it was going to be a special show.
Indeed it was, they blasted out hit after hit, with the majestically crafted Zoom stealing the show. The way they played that haunting track live needs to be heard, on record it’s great, live it’s something else, the crowd were transfixed, shortly after they bombarded us with God! Show Me Magic, which brought the crowd around again. Lead guitarist Bumf and keyboarder Cian got in on the action too, singing a song each “White Socks/flip flops” and “Mountain”, the former a rocky track from the new album, got the crowd dancing, and Bumf still can hit those notes very well.
It was the most no frills show I had ever seen from the Furries, but despite that they sparkled on stage, and provided the adorning fans a show which was masterful in every respect. New tracks like Inaugural Trams (during which Gruff held up a picture of Franz Ferdinand’s Nick McCarthy who provided guest vocals for the German rap in the middle of the song , Moped Eyes, and Very Best of Neil Diamond, all sounded very fresh and vibrant live, which is not the same I could say about Radiohead after hearing the songs from In Rainbows live.
They ended the show with a blistering rendition of Man Don’t Give a Fuck, before announcing to a mostly confused crowd that they don’t believe in encores whilst Gruff again holds up another placard, although this time written in English saying “Resist phony encores” The English speakers and foreigners at the show understood him, but the others who didn’t, didn’t care, the house was full of smiles, as they let rip with the glorious Keep the Cosmic Trigger Happy as the final song. They were on fire, and the crowd loved it. They say in Japan once you have a fan, you have them for life, people aren’t as fickle here as they are in Western society, and bands like the Furries, who aren’t at their prime, commercially at least, know they are lucky to have such dedicated fans here, and the “thanks” from Gruff was very heartwarming. They did themselves proud, the fans loved it, and now they have at least two new North American fans in the SFA army. SFA OK.
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