Foals at First Avenue, Minneapolis (30 April 2019)

Foals Setlist

1. On the Luna
2. Mountain at My Gates
3. Snake Oil
4. Olympic Airways
5. My Number
6. Black Gold
7. Spanish Sahara
8. Syrups
9. Providence
10. Sunday
11. Red Socks Pugie
12. Exits
13. In Degrees
14. White Onions
15. Inhaler
    — Encore —
16. What Went Down
17. Two Steps, Twice

Preoccupations Setlist

1. Newspaper Spoons
2. Continental Shelf
3. Espionage
4. Disarray
5. Memory
6. March of Progress

Tour Dates

Consider us all saved—

The always entertaining Foals, from Oxford, UK is back, out in support of their latest full-length, Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 1 (Warner Bros/Transgressive Records) and took their live performance to literal new heights, with a raucous show in Minneapolis at First Avenue.

The evening’s triple-bill lineup began with a buzzing trio from Atlanta, Omni (Philip Frobos, ex-Deerhunter guitarist Frankie Broyles, with live drummer Chris Yonker- perhaps named after the now-demolished Georgia arena?), who just signed to Sub Pop’s new Singles Club, playing both new songs, ‘Delicacy’ and ‘I Don’t Dance’, and more during their brief opening set.

The trio plays an antsy and addictive blend of post-punk rock, sharpened by staccato riffs and cerebral arrangements and is working on their third full-length, visibly happy about their recent signing and the chance to be on this bill. From the enthusiastic reception gauged, expect the band back, when the new record completes.

Calgary’s Preoccupations was up next (Matt Flegel- vocals, bass; Scott Munro-guitar, synth; Daniel Christiansen- guitar; and Mike Wallace- drums), with their own darker blend of self-described “labyrinthine post-punk” in support of third full-length, New Material (Jagjaguwar Records).

The band began their thirty minute set with the foreboding drum beats of ‘Newspaper Spoons’, from their 2015 debut full-length, when their band was named something more controversial. The moniker change and new musical material are welcome, providing a sense of rebirth, and their set played like one long piece, with bursts of white noise or droning sounds, filling the space between tracks.

With a stage decorated by assorted palm plants and vertical lighting, set in front of a large banner with emblazoned stone lions that complement the new album’s cover, Foals began their ninety-minute set list with the new ‘On the Luna’. Restless singer/guitarist Yannis Philippakis emoted, “we had it all, but didn’t stop to think about it” then didn’t give the crowd any time to catch its breath, seguing into 2015 hit, ‘Mountain at my Gates’ with everyone gleefully clapping along.

The band (huge in Europe and elsewhere, so we are lucky to see them in clubs here) has an aggressively prolific rest of the year planned, traveling all over the world and playing most major festivals, including headlining their hometown Truck Festival, and is releasing their companion follow-up album in September, “They’re two halves of the same locket,” Philippakis explains. “They can be listened to and appreciated individually, but fundamentally, they are companion pieces.”

The band (Philippakis along with Jack Bevan- drums; Jimmy Smith- guitar; Edwin Congreave- keys; and touring bassist Jeremy [Everything Everything] Pritchard) is already very musically tight, leading smoothly from 2008’s ‘Olympic Airways’ and Philippakis chanting “re-a-ppear”, directly into 2013’s breakout jangly hit, ‘My Number’.

Foals’ musical style is nearly indescribable, deftly melding several styles into something unique, similar in scope to Talking Heads and late cellist Arthur Russell, and the ambitious new two-album work, is perhaps their most focused and accurate mirror of the band’s vision to date (from a listen to Part 1 anyway).

The solemn ‘Spanish Sahara’ found Philippakis pleading to “forget the horror here” with the narrator all-knowing as “the ghost in the back of your head” with the singer then asking himself out loud on the new ‘Syrups’, “won’t you find a way from me somehow?”

New single ‘Sunday’ is apocalyptic in theme, but still extols finding the needed time to clear your head, and ‘Exits’, which is still getting regular airplay locally, sounded even more urgent live, its lyrics of powerlessness set against a nontraditional, complicated and highly effective musical math-rock arrangement.

The bouncy, synth-heavy new ‘In Degrees’ and the driving rock of ‘White Onions’ moved into the main set’s closer, ‘Inhaler’, with Philippakis asking the crowd beforehand, “Are you ready?” to riled up cheers as the band fired up the 2013 song, with ferocious energy. Oddly, photographers were only allowed to shoot the last few songs of the show, instead of the standard first three, and the reason why, became very clear with the encore.

As the bustling crowd chanted the band’s name to help goad them back (“you guys have been awesome tonight!”, Philippakis remarked) the singer briefly waxed nostalgic about playing to a sparse crowd next door their first time here in 2010, before shredding into 2015’s ‘What Went Down’, with the real story being what went up. Philippakis jumped into the front pit with guitar not once but twice, causing a frenzy, then making his way up the venue’s right stairs to rest on the balcony rail.

“Feisty bunch, aren’t ya? You want it to get a bit spicy tonight” Philippakis asked during the set-closing “Two Steps, Twice’ as the crowd clapped along, himself taking two steps off the edge and then a balcony dive down into the left side crowd, as applauding hands supported him and carried him safely back to the stage for an amazing finish.

With Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost, Foals finds itself purposely on its next creative level as a band- with their live shows already legendary, and a good handful of memorable songs, it’s only a matter of time before America catches up to the rest of the world, making this band an even more major draw. From the capacity crowd on this night, no one was lost, they were all musically saved.  

(click on any photo below to enlarge and see full image)