Free Energy, Music Hall Of Williamsburg

Free Energy is the greatest cover band of seventies rock music that doesn’t actually exist. Heavily influenced by the sounds of bands like Thin Lizzy, T-Rex, and Foghat, their song lyrics focus mainly on driving around, hanging out with friends, and chasing girls. Their album, ‘Stuck On Nothing’, is almost an auditory homage to Richard Linklater’s movie Dazed and Confused.

Although the band sounds like it could be the product of tongue-in-cheek musical jokesters, Free Energy is actually one of the most earnest bands around. On stage, it’s obvious they love the music that influenced them, and hold a true reverence to the sound of that era. To their credit, the band does not attempt to imitate the over the top dress of their idols, but perform in the tank tops, sneakers, and long hair of seventies rock and roll fans.

Whereas such reverence could easily lead to the production of some unfortunately bland music Free Energy turned their love into craft, constructing incredibly solid pop songs, full of hooks and swagger.

Live, come on songs like ‘Something in Common’ and break-the-rules ‘Free Energy’ hold true to their album cuts. The band themselves obviously enjoy their jobs, as evidenced by lead singer Paul Spranger’s routine address to the crowd “How is everyone tonight? Good!” As the band chase good times through their catalogue of songs, they want to be sure that the audience is right there with them.

During the sugar rush of ‘Bang Pop’ the band are rushed from backstage by friends and members of the openings bands, and a general party erupts onstage. In this moment their music finds unintentional self-reflexivity: as they sing about kicking back and rocking out with friends, they create that very situation.