Seattle Subsonic

White Lies & Friendly Fires @ Neumos 04-07-09

April 9th, 2009

So I roll in about 10 and The Soft Pack was already done. White Lies gear was staged and ready to go, and there was an obvious 15min break in-between sets so the next band could make an “entrance.” Plenty of peep in the Nuemos house and when the band took the stage the sound engineers were on point for sure. Neumos is great for that extra punch in the system that makes or breaks shows. The UK band White Lies started their set with “Farewell to the Fairground” the hit single off of their album “To Lose My Life.” The sound was huge, and so was the stage presence in the beginning. Vocals were strong and the instruments came off confident and solid all the way around, the band was very tight. This particular song is my favorite off this album so when the lyrics in the end came chanting “keep on running, there’s no place like home ” everyone was into it and you could tell the band had really captured the crowds attention. Anticipating the next song we all hung on to what the next song would be… and… not so much. Actually I shouldn’t say that they band really does pull out alot of stops, and its pretty big time rock and roll, but the first song kind of set the bar and didn’t really go past that for the rest of the show. All in all they sounded really close to the album, kind of reminds me of an earlier, heavier Depeche Mode with a Morrissey tinge. Songs like “To Lose My Life” remind me of a group that used to play in Seattle for a while called Martian Memo to God (check it). WL guitarist and front-man Harry McVeigh hits the notes, and has a strong voice but by the end of the set you could hear it.
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Look this is a personal note to Harry… from me… if he ever reads this. Every time I’ve ever played music in front of people, I wanted somebody, anybody with a good ear to tell me if I was sharp or flat that night. I have NEVER had anybody tell me even when I knew I was, and I needed to know, cuz that’s how you improve. Harry… you were flat. In alot of spots, and I know its gotta be tough touring and singing 6 nights a week, but the audience can hear it. Don’t take it personal, its the only show I’ve seen and I’m only speaking from one night. But like I said, if it was me, I’d wanna know, and I don’t know if anybody else will tell ya.

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I’d definitely recommend the album, the production is great (Interscope/Geffen) especially in a good system.  And if you really wanna hear some good shit cruz on over to their myspace page and check out some of the remixes, sick! Bring on the Friendly Fires.

There’s been alot of buzz about Friendly Fires and for good reason their disco funk indie/pop is really addicting and the beat hits hard. Way more bodies were moving for FF than WL but the music is totally different, and FF singer Ed Macfarlane croons his way with the crowd constantly pulling the mic away from his face to automate vocal volume. All of which adds to a great performance, however I did notice 2 things about this band that I don’t know other people caught.
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1. Macfarlane half way through the second or third song, right in the middle of dancing around the stage, spun around and in one flawless movement put his hand to one nostril and blew out the hugest white snot rocket I’ve seen toward the back of the stage. The whole move was damn near ninja skill the way he pulled it off, I seriously don’t think anybody else noticed (not that anybody cares). But the flawless execution of the whole thing was nonless than a trained professional.
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2. They were backtracking, alot. Meaning they had a good portion of the music they play being pumped through the system while they just went through the motions. This is actually a really popular way of playing live performances these days, let the house system do the work instead of lugging all your gear around (we all secretly envy the DJ for this reason). But I just found it interesting that I heard everything from keyboard to backup vocals while nobody was playing them. I’m the last one to criticize this technique as I backtrack almost all of my show, just an observation.
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Great show overall, I like the fact that I saw human error out of both of these bands, that’s what make a live show “live.” FF just release a self titled album (click here to get it) in September of 08 and its definitely worth checking out, however with both of these bands make sure you listen to the CD on a good system otherwise you might miss that bottom end “thump” that really drives the point and production quality home.