They kicked off their tour here in Manchester in tiny Gorilla back in March, and since been to the US, Europe and now back on home turf with two huge sold out shows at Victoria Warehouse, making it their biggest show to date.
NME claim its their best album to date, it’s hard to disagree and we can’t wait to hear it live!
The first support of the evening is KIEV, rock band from southern California. Next up is chief support, coming from Wolverhampton indie trio YAK. YAK released their second album ‘Pursuit of Momentary Happiness’ earlier on in the year, they are known for their brutal, high energy and intense live sets, the perfect warm up for Foals.
Foals are on!!! They kick things off with their stand-out release ‘On The Luna’ the band then segued straight back into classic banger ‘Mountain at My Gates’
The Warehouse stage has been transformed into an illuminated pink jungle mimicking their latest album cover, with multiple layers of strip lights, strobes and foliage suspended from the lighting rig, it’s the most impressive stage set we have seen from the lads.
“Oh man, it’s good to be back Manchester!”
Next Banger is ‘Snake Oil’. Foals perfectly blend their old classics and newer hits as they rattle off a few of the old favourites ‘Olympic Airways’, ‘My Number’ and ‘Black Gold’. The stage fills with multi coloured smoke and a moving landscape backdrop on the rear screen, for floaty ‘Sunday’ the extended guitar duo between Yannis and Jimmy on this track is mind blowing.
Yannis tells us to “Get your skank on for this one” for ‘Syrups’
Yannis throws himself into the crowd, running across the front row and crowd surfing for ‘Providence’ definite highlight of the gig so far is when they drop the extended outro, we lost count of how many times they looped the outro, dimming the lights before one final rendition. We all now know we are watching one of Britain’s greatest indie rock bands in their absolute peak.
“Couple of things Manchester, this is our favourite place in the world to play, we have played every venue from Night & Day Cafe, we have played all the Academy’s. Thank you so much!”
“Thank you to all the boys on the road with us, this is for those guys” they go onto play ‘Total Life Forever’ album’s centrepiece ‘Spanish Sahara’ as their back catalogue grows this track should always remain on their live set list.
Jack (the drummer) stands up on his elevated platform as yannis joins him in front of the kit for the intro of ‘Red Socks Pugie’ He descends back to the front of the stage and the Maraca is in hand for the ‘In degrees’ intro, with the twiddly guitar lines and pulsing techno beats the crowd go wild for it. The boys have said that Part 1. album is going to be a groover and Part 2. is going to be a banger. No song represents the groove of this album more than ‘In Degrees’ does.
“let’s go absolutely berserk” The lads pull out all the stops for ‘Inhaler’ Yannis has a wonder through the crowd. It seems he has accepted that as the venues get bigger it’s not going to be as easy to crowd surf off the balcony, but a lap through the audience reinforces the connection with the crowd.
The lads have been playing a new unreleased track from Part.2 ‘Black Bull’ at the odd gig, and we were holding out hope to hear it tonight but was not to be. Regardless, the epic Encore starts with massive track ‘What Went Down’ as Yannis spins around the stage and the mosh pit forms once again.
“F#ck yeah! “this is a sweaty ol show, you guys are troopers, sweatier the better”
The ultimate finale track as always is ‘Two Steps Twice’ the Warehouse limits Yannis to any crowd jumping opportunities, he settles for standing up on a platform to the rear of Jacks drum kit for the final banger. The sweaty fans are left stunned!
Their latest tour showcases every angle of Foals’ magic. Best live band around at the moment, if they are not headlining Glastonbury 2020, i would be very surprised! The Oxford rockers will be back in October with Part.2 album followed by Part.2 tour. Don’t miss them!
SET LIST:
On The Luna
Mountain at My Gates
Snake Oil
Olympic Airways
My Number
Black Gold
Sunday
Syrups
Providence
Spanish Sahara
Red Socks Pugie
Exits
In Degrees
White Onions
Inhaler
ENCORE:
What Went Down
Two Steps Twice
