Foals, O2 Academy Leeds

A case for why Foals could be the best live band in the UK right now.

We submit the following casenotes:

Musicianship:
Tight. Precise. Note perfect. Musical improv, instrument-hopping and instrumental extensions. Welcome and selective use of trumpet (‘The French Open’). CHECK.

Showmanship:
Drum beating, crowdsurfing and climbing up a tall stack of speakers to swing onto the balcony - all courtesy of Mr Tarzan Phillippakis. Jimmy Smith is animated and rocks it on the geetar throughout. CHECK.

Setlist:
‘Blue Blood’, ‘Olympic Airways’, ‘Total Life Forever’, ‘Cassius’, ‘Balloons’, ‘Miami’, ‘Afterglow’, ‘Two Trees’, ‘Alabaster’, ‘Spanish Sahara’, ‘Red Socks Pugie’, ‘Electric Bloom’
ENCORE: ‘The French Open’, ‘Two Steps, Twice’.

A perfectly balanced setlist - with seven tracks from ‘Antidotes’ and seven tracks from ‘Total Life Forever’ - mixed according to ‘mood’. Crowd pleasers are thrown in early, like ‘Cassius’ and ‘Balloons’ as a two-in-a-row marvel, but with plenty of fan faves worth waiting for left to follow. Surprise omission is recent single ‘This Orient’ and (perhaps, less surprisingly) ‘Hummer’, the song where it all started. But with 9.15 - 10.45pm as a set time, some things had to go, we suppose. CHECK.

Dynamics:
A minimalist beginning (‘Blue Blood’) before a shift into high octane-high energy gear with a stream of jerky, hard hitters (‘Cassius’ and friends) in the first half of the set. Then a softer tone and slower paced second half of songs pulled from ‘TLF’ before a return to the more frenzied ‘classic Foals’ territory. CHECK.

Audience interaction:
In terms of audience banter, there is nothing except the usual ‘Thank you for having us Leeds… it’s good to be back.’, but then Foals are not the kind of band from which you would expect too much of this sort of thing anyway. The interaction comes through Yannis’ gesturing at every opportunity for the crowd to sing back lyrics and angular riffs. And throwing yourself into the crowd for them to rip off your shirt and steal your shoes certainly counts as giving something to the crowd! CHECK.

Mood:
Club 14-17 camp out up front in hordes (and here we are thinking Foals were a ‘student’ band). When they play their second track - mega moshpit quickly ensues. Crowdsurfing not compulsory but evident particularly in the second half. No mass exits to the bar. CHECK.

Energy:
Bundles - from band to crowd and back to band. Jimmy is definitely excitable about his guitar.

Appearance:
Symmetric hair. Smart-cash band attire. And Yannis comes back on the stage shirtless for Electric Bloom. CHECK.

Performance rating: 9/10. One of the best gigs we’ve been to in ages!