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Nick Morgan and crew
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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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| THE
FLEET FOXES
Shepherds
Bush Empire
London
November
5th 2008 |
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| Few
new bands can have earned such plaudits over the
past year as Seattle five-piece The
Fleet Foxes, whose eponymous album
(released in June) found dewy-eyed reviewers looking
back forty years with unwarranted affection to the
great summer of love, whose soundtrack has so clearly
inspired composer Robin Pecknold and his colleagues.
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| These
hugely talented young men, (the five-piece which
recorded the album subsequently lost two members
and gained a couple more, including drummer J
Tillman, who played a largely unappreciated
acoustic solo support set here), with their unruly
hair, unkempt beards and nonchalantly-worn shabby
clothes, exude the spirit of the sixties. Their
conceit is that of the purist, the enthusiast, the
gifted amateur, the searcher for truth and beauty
rather than fame and fortune – ‘not
much of a rock band’ as they describe themselves.
And according to the press, the band and their various
family members live the sort of idyllic, almost
communal life style, that those reviewers harking
back to a lost golden age (and no doubt a lost youth
too) might wish for themselves. Why, even their
merchandise
store turns its back on merchandise, preferring
to offer ‘artefacts’ for sale instead.
Tell me Serge – since when has a t-shirt been
an artefact? |
| The
Shepherds Bush Empire is packed to the rafters (a
lot of the audience sporting unruly hair, unkempt
beards and nonchalantly-worn shabby clothes) and
there is an air of eager, if uncertain, expectation.
But whatever the preconceptions, the whole place
is blown away by an enchanting start, with the unaccompanied
‘Sun Giant’ followed by album opener
‘The sun it rises’, a song caught somewhere
between Steeleye Span’s English idyll, and
the unabashed and joyful audacity of ‘Suite
Judy blue eyes’ (do you remember just how
remarkable that sounded played for the first –
or was it second – time at Woodstock?). These
boys can sing. It’s not just Pecknold, whose
voice must be a recording technician’s dream
(and an A&R man’s for that matter) but
the whole band. We’ve already heard Tillman’s
delicate high-notes, but combined with Pecknold
and his colleagues the impact is stunning. However
I do get a growing sense of déjà vu
as the evening wears on – and realise I’m
not thinking back even a few decades but rather
a few months. Same theatre, different band. It was
the Zombies in March playing the famously miss-spelt
Odessey and Oracle, “a piece now regarded
as a landmark album – straddling the Beach
Boys and Brian Wilson on the one hand and the Beatles
and Lennon and McCartney (sorry Sir Paul, I mean
McCartney and Lennon) on the other”. And sadly,
once that thought got into my mind (not the Sir
Paul bit I hasten to add) it unleashed a small wave
of negativity which I found difficult to lose as
the evening progressed – sadly quite the reverse.
And the Photographer was no help – after about
15 minutes, frustrated at not getting a good shot,
she had firmly adopted the ‘I’m a bored
Photographer get me out of here’ look. |
| So
before Whiskyfun is hacked out of existence by starry-eyed
naive and idealistic, unruly hair, unkempt beard
and nonchalantly-worn shabby clothes-sporting youths,
let me repeat how good these guys are, they can
play, and as I’ve said, they sing like angels
(Pecknold singing Judee Sill’s ‘Crayon
Angels’ and ‘Oliver James’ solo
was spine-tinglingly good). They’re also quite
personable. Anyone who comes on to the stage the
day after an American Presidential Election and
says “You know, this is the first time I’ve
walked on stage and not felt bad about being American”
has to win a small place in your heart for their
candour alone. And their radio style chit-chat about
politics and all that sort of stuff is insouciantly
charming. And I did mention they could sing, didn’t
I? |
 |
But
the sad fact is they’re all source material
and no synthesis. There’s no real argument
here – no hypothesis. I’m not saying
it’s plagiarism – it’s so much
better than that, but these boys have got a long
way to go before they’re the real deal. The
songs are episodic – almost incomplete. And
the lyrics – well if you’ve got a mind
open to the realities of the world we live in, then
you have to wonder where they could have come from
– if not, of course, from Odessey and Oracle
and its like. |
| And
you just can’t write songs and keep your head
totally in the sand, as some reviewers would seem
to wish. But I would like to think that the Fleet
Foxes, and their genius Mr Pecknold, do have a truly
great album inside them somewhere. And I’ll
be the first to buy it. |
| In
the meantime, here’s a nice idea for anyone
struggling to decide how to spend their VAT cuts
and tax rebates, as the fall of world capitalism
brings Christmas strangely closer. This is an after-Christmas-lunch
game, for adults only, involving a blindfold and
a copy of the Fleet Foxes very nice album, and a
copy of the Zombies Odessey
and Oracle (Revisited), recorded live at the
Bush this year. (If you listen closely you might
hear a gentle Fender amplifier hum in the background,
but rest assured it was only the Photographer snoring
gently). Get your DJ to alternate tracks and try
and guess which is which. Hours of fun and seasonal
obfustication guaranteed.
- Nick Morgan (concert polaroids by Kate and Nick) |
| Listen:
The
Fleet Foxes' MySpace page |
Check
the index of all reviews:
Nick's Concert Reviews
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There's nothing more down there... |
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