Fleet Foxes at the Manchester Apollo

I had a great night at the Manchester Apollo on Tuesday night watching Seattle’s Fleet Foxes. If you don’t know Fleet Foxes their music is often described as Folk Rock or Indie Folk but I don’t think either of these correctly reflects the music. They are pleasantly hard to categorise. The band is made up of some incredibly talented musicians but they are particularly praised for their beautiful vocal harmonies.

The opening track was an instrumental called ‘The Cascades’ and it felt a bit like an overture readying us for the main event. Robin Pecknold is a great frontman with a voice that can go from the gentle softness to aggressive power in a heartbeat but his voice sounded a bit lost during the second track ‘Grown Ocean’. I think the sound engineer pulled his socks up because things soon balanced out and within a couple of tracks the sound was just right.

The band seemed to get tighter with each track. By the time we got to the brilliant ‘Sim Sala Bim’ and fan favourite ‘Mykonos’ the music and vocal harmonies were perfectly seamed and tuly hypnotic. ‘Your Protector’ and ‘White Winter Hymnal’ were particular highlights. The crowd was really into the show and showed their appreciation with lots of singing and cheering. One or two attention seeking knobheads got a bit vocal between tracks but that seems to be the case at most gigs these days.

The main body of the set ended with a personal favourite of mine ‘Blue Ridge Mountains’ and the crowd loudly cheered them off at the end of it. The noise continued until Pecknold reappeared on his own to perform ‘Oliver James’ and this track showed just what an amazing vocal talent he is. The rest of the band then joined him onstage to end the night with ‘Helplessness Blues’.

A top gig by a top band in a top venue.

Set list as follows:
1. The Cascades
2. Grown Ocean
3. Drops In The River
4. Battery Kinzie
5. Bedouin Dress
6. Sim Sala Bim
7. Mykonos
8. Your Protector
9. Tiger Mountain Peasant Song
10. White Winter Hymnal
11. Ragged Wood
12. Lorelai
13. Montezuma
14. He Doesn't Know Why
15. The Shrine/An Argument
16. Blue Spotted Tail
17. Blue Ridge Mountains
Encore:
18. Oliver James
19. Helplessness Blues

U2 at Glastonbury 2011

Before I start I want to say that I’m going to steer clear of the tax avoidance issue. This Blog post is about the band, its music and the performance from last night.

I think this year’s choice of headliners is a bit poor. Coldplay will put a good show on but are a very conservative, risk free and, dare I say, slightly boring choice. Beyonce at Glastonbury just seems like an incredibly strange choice and doesn’t fit with my idea of what a Glastonbury headliner should be (it’s cruel but I would love to see her pelted with mud). The first headliner of the weekend though was the musical money making machine that is U2.

After last years no show U2 finally headlined a rain soaked Glastonbury. I’m not at Glastonbury this year so I can only give my opinion on their performance from the point of view of watching it on the television. I’m not in the U2 hater’s brigade but I’m not a big fan of them either so I’m exactly the sort of person they needed to win over.

My initial impression was that Bono looked nervous during the first couple of songs. Once he realised the crowd weren’t booing and throwing mud at him he seemed to settle down a bit and enjoy himself. The opening salvo was actually quite strong with hits taken mainly from the Achtung Baby era played against a backdrop of Zoo TV type video screen graphics. Things then settled down but only ‘One’, ‘Streets Have No Name’ and ‘I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For’ got the crowd singing. One of the strongest U2 songs is ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ and it should have been a highlight but it just felt a bit flat and lifeless. I did enjoy ‘Elevation’ but ‘Vertigo’ felt a bit forced.

The encore was a huge disappointment as they had used up all the most well know hits that are needed for a memorable finale. ‘With or Without You’ worked but ‘Moment of Surrender’ was lost on the crowd. ‘Out of Control’ couldn’t save them by this point and the set ended on a bit of a dour note.

Bono tried his best not to be a pretentious twat but he is one and he can’t hide it for long. His Jerusalem made me cringe with embarrassment. The Edge gave his all but couldn’t hide the fact that it’s all sound effect peddles and computer programmes. Andy Clayton and Larry Mullen were as tight and professional as we have come to expect and managed to hold the sound together.

U2 were never going to stir the emotions of a Glastonbury crowd in the same way as say Blur did a couple of years earlier. The hits are popular but the fact of the matter is that U2 rely on the big stage sets and video screens to mask much that is mediocre.

There were some good points last night but not enough to make it a triumph for U2. Perhaps if the weather had been better the crowd might have been a bit more up for it but I doubt the music would have lifted them to any great degree. I give U2 at Glastonbury a score of 6/10. Not bad but not great either.