Foster the People Setlist

Best Friend
Life on the Nickel
Helena Beat
Waste
Coming of Age
Houdini
Goats in Trees
Pseudologia Fantastica
I Would Do Anything
Call It What You Want
Are You What You Want to Be?
A Beginner’s Guide to Destroying the Moon
Never Mind
The Truth
— Encore —
Pumped Up Kicks
Don’t Stop (Color on the Walls)

NONONO Setlist

(intro)
Human Being
Jungle
Like the Wind
Love
Hungry Eyes
Pumpin Blood
Fire Without a Flame

Tour Dates

08/08/14 Squamish, BC Logger Sports Grounds
08/09/14 Troutdale, OR McMenamins Edgefield
08/23/14 Reading, UK Richfield Avenue
08/24/14 Leeds, UK Bramham Park
08/28/14 Anchorage, AK Moose’s Tooth Pub
08/30/14 Edmonton, AB Northlands Grounds
08/31/14 Calgary, AB Fort Calgary Historic Park
09/01/14 Seattle, WA Seattle Center
09/05/14 University Park, PA Bryce Jordan Center
09/06/14 Charlotte, NC PNC Music Pavilion
09/07/14 Raleigh, NC Walnut Creek Amph
09/08/14 Pittsburgh, PA Stage AE
09/10/14 Ottawa, ON Hog’s Back Park
09/11/14 Buffalo, NY Canalside
09/12/14 Columbus, OH The LC Pavilion
09/13/14 Milwaukee, WI Eagles Ballroom
09/27/14 La Jolla, CA RIMAC Arena
09/28/14 Tempe, AZ Tempe Beach Park
09/30/14 Las Cruces, NM Pan American Center
10/02/14 Oklahoma City, OK OKC Downtown
10/03/14 Austin, TX Zilker Park
10/05/14 Mobile, AL Downtown Mobile
10/08/14 Columbia, MO Downtown Columbia
10/08/14 Columbia, MO Blue Note
10/10/14 Austin, TX Zilker Park
10/16/14 Miami Beach, FL Fillmore Miami Beach
10/18/14 Orlando, FL Hard Rock Cafe
10/20/14 Louisville, KY Louisville Palace Theatre
10/24/14 New York, NY United Palace
10/25/14 New York, NY United Palace
11/01/14 Mexico Cardines De Parque Fundidora
11/08/14 Oakland, CA Fox Theater
11/10/14 Sacramento, CA Memorial Auditorium
11/14/14 Los Angeles, CA Shrine Aud & Expo Hall
11/15/14 Santa Barbara, CA Santa Barbara Bowl

Los Angeles-based Foster the People brought more than a few “pumped up kids” out to the suburbs of Maplewood for their all-ages show at Myth.

A Swedish trio (that doubled into six for their touring version) NONONO, opened the show with a brief but bouncy half hour of danceable alt-pop. The main three in the band (production team Astma & Rocwell and singer Stina Wäppling) were humble but thrilled to be in Minneapolis for the first time, in support of their first full-length, We Are Only What We Feel (Warner Music) and have caught the country’s attention with single, ‘Pumpin Blood’ which has been everywhere, including the soundtrack for a Samsung commercial.

As a moody instrumental intro played, the band came out and played in minimal lighting, getting the crowd to clap along from the very first verse. ’Human Being’ was dark but danceable, and their sound seemed very based on percussive rhythms with keyboard and guitar flourishes, as Wäppling’s voice rose like a restrained Florence Welch, to drive the tracks.

The band only turned up the lights briefly near the end of their set to introduce the members, with Wäppling apologizing to the audience for being somewhat so hard to see. ‘Pumpin’Blood’, a “song you might have heard”, indeed “had the whole world whistling” or at least the throng that was in attendance at Myth. A headlining set in a smaller room would only be better, so let’s hope they return soon.

Amidst a two-level stage embellished with small glacier-like artifices which lit up in tandem and rows of footlights, Foster the People took the stage for their 85 min. set, starting smartly with newest radio hit, ‘Best Friend’.

The band is out in support of Supermodel (Columbia Records), which was helmed by big-time producer Paul Epworth, (Adele, Paul McCartney, Coldplay) and the live version of the band, like NONONO, expanded two-fold, with three additional members joining Mark Foster (vocals, a little of everything else), “Cubbie” Fink (bass), and Mark Pontius (drums).

Foster was at center, dressed in a fitted black leather jacket, black pants, penny loafers (no socks) and an odd t-shirt from Berlin of a Wall painting of USSR’s Brezhnev kissing then-East German leader Honecker. The other band members were spread about the stage, often staying in their same corners, but occasionally converging near Pontius’ drum kit, which also had keyboards and other instruments in the immediate area.

Foster didn’t address the crowd for the first several songs; instead letting the music do the talking, which was more than all right with this mostly-younger crowd, who were very excited to be there (with the exception of a Jeff “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” Spicoli look/sound-a-like in a Summer Set shirt near me, who was too enamored by his own loud voice). Foster impressed, moving about the stage and switching instruments almost every couple of songs.

“Thanks for coming out on a Monday night”, he remarked after an upbeat ‘Helena Beat’ from the band’s debut, “it’s always great to be back”. ‘Waste’ slowed things down a bit, but still had that distinctive FTP bassline as its foundation and the band’s highly-polished alt-pop translates well from studio-to-concert, similar to French band Phoenix, who has a equally smooth and eminently likeable sound.

First single from Supermodel, ‘Coming of Age’ brought things up again with the audience clapping along at the bridge, then things got a little trippy mid-set with ‘Pseudologia Fantastica ‘, a song that evokes images as wild as the album’s cover art. “It’s warming up in here”, Foster remarked, ditching his jacket while shuffling in his penny loafers in a way that was mildly Michael Jackson reminiscent.

The three songs that ended the main set (‘Beginners Guide/Never Mind/The Truth’) seemed to flow together neatly (although they are not in that order on the new album), and seemed more conceptual in nature, when played live back-to-back.

The encore turned out to be abbreviated, as ‘Miss You’ was on the setlist, but…err, missed, with the band launching forward into their biggest hit, ‘Pumped Up Kicks’, which was more than ok with a crowd that had been waiting all night to hear the song.

‘Don’t Stop’ from first album, Torches, closed the night with aplomb, with the audience hoping the band wouldn’t stop, though the all-ages curfew time was fast approaching. Pumped up from the show, everyone was released back into suburbia, waiting until the band comes to town again.