Fleet Foxes gig - a complaint

What's that you say? A complaint about Fleet Foxes, a band who seemingly have yet to suffer a single negative word in their direction?

Well, fear not, because I'm not about to go all against the flow on them. I saw them live last night at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire and they were a real joy to see and hear, much as they were when I saw them before at ULU back in the spring.

So what's the complaint? Well, it was the crowd. Now, I'm not one of your gig Nazis who thinks everyone should stand in hushed awe, but the fact is that when you actually can't hear what's being said onstage because there are SO MANY people talking through the set, then it does start to get to you. Especially when you're watching a band who don't shout, use acoustic guitars and hinge so much of their charm around their lyrics. I'm probably in part to blame for picking a spot at the back so that My Wife could get a good view (she being rather on the mini side), but really you should be able to listen wherever you are.

Course, there's bugger all you can do about it really, isn't there? Nobody wants a punch up at a Fleet Foxes gig. Oasis, maybe, but not Fleet Foxes. When singer Robin Pecknold came out for a solo encore with just his acoustic, the listening crowd did indeed get a bit sick of it and gave the noisy ones a good shushing. The culprits at least had the decency to look slightly abashed.

Anyway, the gig was amazing and you have to see Fleet Foxes live asap.

As you can see on the flyer above, they're back in London in February, or if you can't wait, I believe they appear on Jools Holland's Later this coming Friday, though the band claimed from the stage last night that they, and I quote, "fucked it up". Surely not lads, surely not.