Foals @ Le National

Last Sunday, the boys from Oxford, England were in town at Le National. Foals' most recent album, Total Life Forever, left me a little unsure about what to expect from their performance. Why? Well, it's completely different from Antidotes, Foals' first album. It's a more mature and moody album, in my opinion, not what I was expecting as their fellow up effort to the catchy, upbeat, almost hyperactive sound of Antidotes. I didn’t know what to expect from the show, but I had no reason to worry.

The show started in a haze of smoke with the band members settling in to their places. Then the voice of Foals’ front man, Yannis Philippakis, resonated in the speakers. Looking rather scruffy with his thick, day-old beard and curly, messy hair, he started off the show with "Miami" off TLF. You could feel the excitement in the crowd build up as they went back and forth from a new song to a classic one for the first few  songs. All this time, I couldn’t help to noticed that Foals sounded more like their original self then what you hear when listening to TLF. Of course, this is a live show and not a CD. You could see that the guys had good chemistry; they play and goof around with each other and the crowd throughout the show. Yannis seemed at times like an hyperactive kid on stage, jumping, running and throwing drum sticks into the crowd. They were a very entertaining show filled with acrobats provided by Yannis himself; he tried to climb up to the balconies from the stage and almost lost his grip! During the encore, he stage dived, without warning, into the crowd and ran round the floor at Le National -  he passed besides me, too. It was fun to watch indeed, although I wouldn't have wanted to be among the people who cushioned the fall!

They put on a superb show! It was nice to see that the guys put a lot of energy into their performance. They played for almost an hour and a half (encore include). The playlist was filled with new material but they did not neglect the classics that made them populare, like: "Cassius," "Mathletics" and "Olympic Airways." Even songs like "Spanish Sahara," "Miami" and "Blue Blood" from Total Life Forever are bound to be instant classics. We even got the news toward the end of the show that the most wanted man on earth had been slained! Entertained and informed, what more could we have asked for!

-Alex Menjivar hosts The Letter B on Saturdays from Midnight-1am