WORDS ON NAKED AND FAMOUS: WILLIAM ALBERQUE
WORDS ON FOALS/FREELANCE WHALES: ERIN HOLMES
PHOTOS BY: SARAH GORMLEY

Kicking off with William on the opening band:

Friday posed some unique logistical challenges. I desperately wanted to see the Naked and Famous at the 930 Club – New Zealand’s finest new band were making their DC debut, opening for Freelance Whales and Foals (yeah, what? No, seriously, what the fuck? I could understand Freelance Whales headlining the Cat, and Foals maybe at RnR, but what the fuck are Naked and Famous doing at the bottom of that bill?!?!). At the same time, seven blocks away, Yuck were opening for Tame Impala at the Cat. Fortunately, in a fluke of perfect timing, Naked and Famous went on at 8:55, and Yuck weren’t to take the stage before 9:45.

The Naked and Famous played an incredibly tight set of dance-electro, with David Beadle on bass, Jesse Wood on drums, and Aaron Short on keyboards, with dual vocals by guitarist Thom Powers and keyboardist Alisa Xayalith. The bass tones of the opening track mix with the building drums, creating an unmistakable LCD Soundsystem feeling – specifically All My Friends – but with LCD bowing out in NYC last month, who could complain?

TNaF segue quickly into “Punching in a Dream,” a song so massive, the 930 Club feels tiny for the duration. The enormous synth riffs that open the song and fist-pumping build up that follows are lethally infectious, and the bizarre breakdowns, fadeouts, trading vocals, and rebuilds are simply astonishing. It’s too much for just one song. Xayalith’s voice is incredibly adaptable, at times soft and vulnerable, and then huge and fearless, and then a formless howl, but all with such serene confidence and control.

My only criticism of the Naked and Famous – and there’s really, really very little to criticize here – is that they badly need a light show. A set design. Something. It’s just them, on stage, which I’m sure works just fine at outdoor festivals, but here smacks just a bit of a lack of trying, a shortage of imagination. And I know that they have no shortage of imagination, as each successive song proves.

The next song is called “Spank,” and the bass tones in the keys are so heavy, I can feel it pushing my hair around (you’d have to see my head to see why that’s kind of remarkable). I feel woozy from the sound – I’m guessing they use the same setup for a field of 20,000 as they do here tonight. Xayalith is phenomenal, and then Thom takes over for the middle of the song, before she finishes it. The drums are a wonder as well, with Wood pounding his way through a riveting finale.

TNaF continue with two gentle songs, the latter of which has a strange interplay between pounding drums and delicate vocals – it reminds me of Cut Copy with a bit of British Sea Power at their most magnificent thrown in. Xayalith introduced them as a bunch of Kiwis – cue the fans that’ve helpfully brought New Zealand flags with them – and they burst into “Girls Like You.” This really is a NZ LCD Soundsystem, but with the lovely touch of the female/male vocal interplay preventing them from receiving any accusations of plagiarism. I don’t know the name of the next one, but it’s colossal – I have to find it and DJ it tout suite. Wow. It’s all over too soon – seven songs is not enough, as more than one person in the crowd was heard to say as I quickly departed.

They’re coming back to headline Rock and Roll Hotel on June 18. Trust me. You want to be there.

NOW Erin tackles FOALS & FREELANCE WHALES:

After hearing an all-too-short set by The Naked and Famous, the 930 Club set up for the other two reasons for Friday night’s sold out show: Freelance Whales and Foals.

Freelance Whales have a song on a Starbucks commercial, will be playing at some music festivals this summer, and are quite charming in a wonderfully geeky way. Three men in cardigans and flannel and a quaintly-dressed lady all lined up across the front with their guitars while the drummer steadily pounded behind them. It should be noted that they are great musicians, can all provide vocals, and generally produce some solid indie-pop complete with three sometimes four guitars, sturdy percussion, a xylophone, a synthesizer, a HARMONIUM, and a banjo!

I am a fan of Freelance Whales, so it’s difficult for me to write that I was disappointed with their show. Their live songs (from their 2010 album Weathervanes) did not stray far from the album versions, aside from a couple extended instrumentals.

What proved disconcerting and downright distracting was how packed it was in there, yet I felt little to no band-audience connection. Naturally, I started blaming it on the crowd: How can you not dance to “Hannah,” crowd?? It’s their catchiest tune! Why isn’t anyone moving? Why are you dumb girls standing in a corner taking pictures of yourselves, and SHOUTING over the music in order to carry on conversations? Did we not pay to come to a concert?

Then someone casually pointed out to me that this can and should also be at least partially blamed on the band or style of performance, not just the self-pic-taking crowd. If you’re a good band and you are gathering a following, why not own your stage presence a bit more? We aren’t asking for Britney Spears, just slightly more banter with the audience, maybe some movement on stage, engagement… these gestures would have made a difference. Late in the show, Doris Flynn Cellar (the token girl guitarist/vocalist/harmonium-ist) shyly gestured her arm into a pumping motion, perhaps trying to prompt the somewhat-dead crowd into a similar motion? Their humble natures certainly make them likeable, but they can afford to take it up a notch— their music calls for that, since it often builds into a burst of full sound coming loudly and harmoniously from all directions.

But there were still tender moments. Judah Dadone (if there’s a front man, he’d be it) mentioned that he himself spent a lot of time coming to the 930 Club, referring to it as almost a second home where he grew up seeing his favorite bands. And musically-speaking, their first song “Generator^First Floor,” later numbers “Starring” and “The Great Estates” as well as (wait for it) “Generator^SECOND Floor” all went over best, and for good reason, they played the shit out of them. “Hannah” should have been more of a showstopper, and I just can’t let that disappointment go...

There was thankfully some energy sprinkled throughout the front and middle of the crowd, and the band started to look and smile right at those people as if to say, “At least some of you are enjoying yourselves. Can you believe that group of girls over there aren’t even listening to us? They only dance when they are pretending to take candid pictures…”

English indie-band Foals have the opposite strengths and weaknesses of Freelance Whales: They completely own their live show, they are there to entertain and engage and excite the crowd. They move, they prompt clapping and jumping and yelling. Yet the musicianship and likeability was not there for me; they almost took themselves a bit too seriously. A fan who was going to leave after Freelance Whales decided to stay, and as I high-fived him he joked (re: Yannis Philippakis’s curly fro), “I mean, how often does Prince come to such a small venue?”

And maybe I was tired from not dancing to Freelance Whales or wishing Naked and Famous played longer, but Foals’ songs all blended together by the middle of their set… I felt like the opposite of a bright, young thing. Some people might have felt the same way, because 930 Club was the fairly sparse for a main act… let alone a sold out show. There were vacancies along the balcony and the back had emptied by the encore.

Foals fans, however— were in heaven. They had come specifically to see Foals and would stay and rock out for the entirety of the set until almost 1am. Fifteen songs and instrumental breaks prompted elated reactions from the fans and moshing-galore. There was dancing, there was jumping, there was clapping, there was a light show, there was chaos. Prince Yannis not only crowd-surfed, he later JUMPED UP FROM THE STAGE AND CLIMBED UP ONTO THE SIDE BALCONY. That itself was worth sticking around to see… does this ever happen?! I really want to know.

Bottom line: everyone that was there by the end of the night wanted to be there 110%, which made for an interactive show and that band-audience connection I wanted during Freelance Whales’ set. Songs that stood out to me were the opener “Blue Blood,” “Balloons,” the recognizable “Spanish Sahara,” and “Electric Bloom,” but a Foals fan beside me was blown away by the entire set list, song after song.

Foals succeeded in putting on a hell of a show, but the night as a whole did not reach its full potential. Three impressive bands + a sold out show + 930 Club (!) should be greater than or equal to AMAZING. Right?

Previously in Live DC:

• 5/22: LiveDC: Spirit Animal @ Red Palace
• 5/22: LiveDC: Astra Via @ Black Cat
• 5/22: LiveDC: Father John Misty @ Rock & Roll Hotel
• 5/22: LiveDC: Drive-By Truckers and Lucinda Williams @ Merriweather
• 5/22: Photos: Summer Camp takes the "Ladies of Town" Drag Show
• 5/22: LiveDC: Penguin Prison & Class Actress @ RNR Hotel
• 5/21: LiveDC: James Morrison @ 930 Club
• 5/21: Photos: Que Sera L'Anniversaire @ Napoleon
• 5/21: LiveDC: La Sera/ Beach Week @ Red Palace
• 5/21: LiveDC: The Black Keys & Arctic Monkeys @ Merriweather Post Pavilion