The far-out, fun and fresh-faced Foxygen played Holocene in
Portland last night. As a fan of the
young (read: just old enough to drink) band’s newish album We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic, I was
kind of disappointed with the show.
Still, I was enthralled and, perhaps more importantly, I was entertained.
The band took the stage looking kind of sheepish, maybe
nervous or uncomfortable with their growing notoriety, maybe just affecting
some kind of sense of road-weary ennui. I
don’t know. Either way, they launched
into “Bowling Trophies,” a fuzzy, instrumental slice of psychedelia complete with
roaring engine noises and distant vocals -- the ensuing freakout would set the
tone for the entire show.
Foxygen landed in Portland fresh off their polarizing
appearance at SXSW, in which frontman Sam France had what some called a bit of
a meltdown; they’d already been touring for months and, after taking off this
April, they’ll be back on the road through July. Maybe the life of a touring musician is
taking its toll on France. At one point
last night, he started waxing philosophical, asking ‘what are we all doing in
here, who are we, what are we doing?’ and talking about ‘psychological stuff’
happening in his head. Whether or not it
was all an act is up for debate but, when he sang, he came across as a totally
capable showman. His voice veered
between lilting and angelic (as on “San Francisco”), deep and sultry (as on “Make
it Known”), and bark-y and unhinged (as on the new album’s title track and “On
Blue Mountain”). Alternating between
robot-style moves and aggressive, Jagger-like finger-pointing, he stalked the
stage and engaged the audience with a wild, wide-eyed fervor. Though he spent a bit of time with his back
to the audience, singing to the drummer, France still seemed focused on the
task at hand.
France’s songwriting partner, and probably the bulk of the
brains behind the whole Foxy operation, Jonathan Rado, seemed more
in-control. He stood to the side,
playing guitar and taking turns on the keyboard with Elizabeth Fay (I think
that’s her name) and France. He wore a
funny hat and polka-dot shirt. Oh, by
the way, France wore a denim jumpsuit.
The set stuck mostly to material from Ambassadors, with some songs from the group’s previous release Take the Kids Off Broadway. Conspicuously absent were standout tracks “No Destruction” and “Oh Yeah.” Due to the album’s unabashed appropriation of
sounds from the sixties, part of me also expected a couple covers from the
decade to flesh out the set but alas, no dice.
Either way, the band treated its tunes less like concrete rules and more
like loose guidelines. France rapped a
few lyrics on “Shuggie,” the band cut out my favorite half of the title track
(which may or may not have had something to do with the fact that they invited
a bunch of other dudes on stage and things got a little out of hand), and the
musical twists and turns that subtly color much of the album felt way more abrupt
and jagged live. Though they didn’t
perform the songs exactly as recorded, which I usually find refreshing, they
got a little too far out for my tastes, which I actually found somewhat
disappointing. I ran into a friend after
the show and he mentioned the bravery (bravado?) of the young, mostly unestablished
band in straying so far from the script.
Maintaining your artistic integrity is one thing but, potentially alienating
fans is quite another. I suppose Foxygen
has some growing to do. They, and when I
say ‘they’ I mean Sam France, came across as attention-starved theater-kids
(not that there’s anything wrong with that), dramatic and flippant and unusual
or atypical just for the sake of it. Even
so, I couldn’t take my eyes off of him.
Wow -- I’m still writing?
I’m really glad I got to see Foxygen and I’ll be really interested to
see where they go from here. Ambassadors is the easy (yet early)
frontrunner for my album of the year pick.
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