PRETTY IN PINK: The Foals, Johnny Brendas, Last Night
BY TIFFANY YOON It was a long day at the polls for Phawker, and the long day almost seemed in vain when Hillary’s Pennsylvania victory was announced. Dejected and upset, Phawker was in need of a drink and some hope. What better way to lift some spirits about the Pennsylvania loss than to watch a band that endorses Barack Obama. Foals is the UK powerpop band that sounds like the result of Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke and the four handsome guys from Battles copulating. Quite an orgy of sound. Fans didn’t know what to do with their bodies as the metronomic beats urged one way of dancing, but the pop hooks urged another. It was a sin to just stand and watch at this show. The opening band, Ghosts, are a Philadelphia duo that played at the Fishtown gallery Little Berlin for last month’s exhibition opening featuring works by Tyler Kline and Mike McGovern. Both bands were experiencing technical difficulties that included a broken guitar and power/sound problems. Thankfully, the show still went on, but as if the bands didn’t have enough troubles with their equipment, a drunken fan persistently grabbed the guys and/or their instruments while they were playing on stage.
Mid-song, the belligerent A-hole grabbed the drum that friends of Foals had graciously lent them for their show. Phawker watched from the balcony while the overzealous fan grabbed the drum while Jimmy was pounding away at all. After it almost fell off-stage, Phawker watched the guy try to discreetly bury himself in the crowd before other fans could get their hands on him to bury him in the ground. Utterances of “asshole” were heard throughout the audience. Due to breaking instruments and faulty equipment, about the 3rd song in, Foals played a song that lead singer Jimmy described as, “unfinished, but heavily influenced by Slayer”. There were no vocals to the improvised song. Foals came back onstage after their set and finished with a three-song encore, ending with their single “Balloons”, a song better known by the remix done by Kieran Hebden (Four Tet). The single is from their debut LP Antidotes, released last month.
[Photo by TIFFANY YOON]