Fleet Foxes / Beach House

This gig has been billed as a joint headliner in some listings which may be why Baltimore-based Beach House, who are fellow Bella Union label-mates with the next band, delight in overrunning their allotted time. The music is ambient, folktronica with downbeat female vocals which have been compared to Nico. The frontperson, Victoria Legrand, on keys and lead vocals, seems to have trouble connecting with the audience, which is not helped by her request to dim the lights so that we can hardly see the band, and she is, in fact, expecting us to throw "salmonella tomatoes" at her (maybe that's an American thing). The shoegazing or stargazing songs, depending on your perspective, all meld into one by the end of the set; some of them seem to end rather abruptly but there's some great atmospheric slide guitar and an excellent cover of the Daniel Johnston song 'Some Things Last a Long Time'.

Seattle outfit Fleet Foxes, on the other hand, have no trouble engaging with the crowd and are greeted by extraordinary warmth and enthusiasm. They are flavour of the month on BBC6 radio and were one of the bright new hopes at the South by South West Festival, as well as recently being hailed by Mojo as "America's next great band". This is their first ever UK tour and tonight's gig is sold out, as was last night's show in Bristol.



There are five members of the band – Robin Pecknold, Skye Skjelset, and Christian Wargo on guitars, recent addition singer-songwriter J. Tillman on drums, and Casey Wescott on keyboards. Four out of five of them share vocals, with Pecknold taking lead and frontman duties. There are mandolin and bowed guitar elements too, but the strength of the music is really in the beautiful harmonies. Rooted in an ancient folk sound which reminds me of Tunng, they draw influences from Bob Dylan and Neil Young, and their harmonious voices are reminiscent of the Beach Boys. Fleet Foxes describe their music as 'baroque harmonic pop jams' and some of it is almost choral, especially the song 'White Winter Hymnal', which is enthusiastically received and the opening song called 'Sun Giant' which is sung a cappella. This is the title track of their recent EP and sounds divine, ensuring everyone is completely captivated from the start.

The audience seem to recognise all of the songs. There are heckles for specific tracks, one of which is 'She Got Dressed' which Pecknold is taken aback by as "there were only like 50 copies" to which the response is that "there are a million on the internet".



Pecknold is deserted by the band during the set to perform a solo version of a song called 'Crayon Angels' by the late American singer-songwriter Judee Sill. This segues seamlessly into a Fleet Foxes' song called 'Oliver James'. The two songs are just stunning and silence the crowd completely, even those stood at the back by the bar who have previously been chatting. This is quite a feat for one man and his acoustic guitar in an 800 capacity venue though he does have the advantage of delicate guitar playing contrasting with strong, soaring vocals which somehow command undivided attention.

The band rejoin him for 'Ragged Wood' and the main set finishes with 'Mykonos' to rapturous applause and the band look humbled and genuinely chuffed at the crowd reaction. There are two songs in the encore – another enchanting solo spot by Pecknold, 'Tiger Mountain Peasant Song', before which he confesses he's 22 and spends most of his time in the basement at his parents' house so this tour is a novelty for him, and then the band return to rock out on 'Blue Ridge Mountains', with the keyboard player head banging away furiously.

On Monday night Fleet Foxes are supporting Elbow as part of the Meltdown season at the Royal Festival Hall and they return in November for an even bigger show at the Shepherds Bush Empire. Their self-titled debut album is released on 16th June.



Set List

Sun Giant
Sun It Rises
Drops in the River
English House
White Winter Hymnal
Your Protector
He Doesn't Know Why
Crayon Angels
Oliver James
Ragged Wood
Mykonos
***
Tiger Mountain Peasant Song
Blue Ridge Mountains

FUTURE GIGS

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