Fleet Foxes

As my pal and I rounded the corner towards the Bowery Ballroom, legally purchased tickets in hand, we were approached by several hopeful buyers eager to catch this season’s hot new band. In the midst of these potential transactions, I caught sight of Fleet Foxes’ drummer lingering outside the stage door, casually taking in the excitement generated by his little band. He may or may not have been aware that earlier that day, tickets to this event had been going for an insane $100 apiece on Craigslist. Apparently this was the place to be. Openers and fellow Seattleites The Dutchess & The Duke began the show with their elegant folk duets, their vocal unison quickly establishing the fact that this would be a night of meticulous harmonies. Aided by a trial percussionist who had traveled all the way from Seattle to play a delicate tambourine and a handful of maracas, the band’s main members Kimberly Morrison and Jesse Lortz were clearly an excellent pair with their sweet melodies and complementary guitar parts. Though the songs started sounding similar to one another midway through the set, these two clearly have a good partnership going on and did not fail to get the crowd ready to be rocked, in that thoughtful folky sort of way.

Thusly prepared, the lucky attendees were delivered an excellent performance by our young, bearded heroes who got the set going with album opener “Red Squirrel/Sun It Rises.” Though humble in the face of their new and quickly earned bit of fame, the personalities of the members of Fleet Foxes shone through with youthful enthusiasm and an obvious thrill to be playing in such a place to such a crowd. Main dude Robin Pecknold played sitting front and center as his bandmates each etched their parts out around him, adding to a whole that stayed remarkably true to the dense sound of their recorded album and EP. Vocals were key, with each member cooing carefully his high or low contribution to give the songs their boys choir quality. Efforts like Skyler Skjelset’s use of a bow across his guitar strings on the vibrant “Drops In The River” helped prove the ability of Fleet Foxes to stun live and deliver what the audience was yearning for ($100 is a lot of yearning). Clearly stealing the show was that saintly voice of Pecknold that, despite a rather nasty cough, sounded powerful and strong. Through a scrunched-up face, many bottles of water, and subtle turns of the head to hack away from the mic, that poor boy performed with the might that only a resilient youngster or dedicated rock star can. As he faithfully played “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” solo for the night’s encore amidst hoots of praise, one thing was quite clear: people like this band.

Check out the L&L review of their album Fleet Foxes