What a show.
From the second the house lights dimmed, the atmosphere switched from calm excited murmuring to a roar, the crowd surged forwards and didn’t stop moving. No words were said, they didn’t need to be, starting off strong with Snake Oil Foals wasted no time in making everyone get fucking messy, the sound was monstrous and even calmer songs like Olympic Airways were played with an aggression that had everyone jumping and shouting along. Throughout the night the lighting arrangements were impeccable, the colour arrangements were minimalistic but they did the job well, there was never a moment the stage looked boring with constant movement and blinding strobes and arrangements that left you looking on at the lads with an awe you just can’t fake or comprehend unless you’ve experienced it yourself.
Honestly it’s difficult enough to write a review, but when there were no moments that stood out above the rest of the night because it was that fucking amazing, it makes it 10 times more difficult. If you want to see the full set list I’ve linked it here. The end of gig was immense, Spanish Sahara into Inhaler was complete madness, especially since a few songs earlier Yannis told everyone to go fucking mental, everyone was already fucking mental so by the end of night it was completely disgusting in Rock City, but you don’t care when you’re witnessing probably the best live show you’ve ever seen take place. It got to a stage where I’d been sprayed by probably every brand of lager rock city sell, was covered in my sweat, was covered in other people’s sweat and was at the point where arms were sliding against each other, you weren’t bouncing off people in the pits but sliding past each other instead. Weirdly all these things just made me love the gig more and I’d book tickets to see them again without any hesitation, they were just that damn good.
The most talked about thing about the gig was probably Yannis. I didn’t have him pegged as such a showman, in fact I didn’t expect it from any of them, but during the final song of the encore (of course they encored, everyone was chanting we want more) there was a moment where Walter (Bass) was having sparklers fitted to his bass guitar because 5th of November and all, and Yannis disappeared, he reappeared on the balcony right next to me and jumped off like a fearless bastard, crowd surfing his way back to stage before leaving so casually.
I’ve put the videos I took from the show into a short Youtube playlist that you can watch here (They’re in 4k if you like that shit)
Foals are truly a titan of rock and indie music, if you ever get the chance to see them, take it! Even if you only like them a little bit, you’ll come out with a new top 10 favourite band, maybe even a new favourite I can guarantee it.
Aman Sood
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