Fanfarlo, Freelance Whales at The Independent (12.02.09)
By @SupercoolEric

Last night, the gang reluctantly watched me battle giant scorpions in Fallout 3 while we drank cheap beer in preparation for the Fanfarlo show at The Independent.

If you’ve never been there, The Independent is a surprisingly barren venue resembling a black box theater. It’s located on East Fifth just west of Progress Coffee. The inside is all black and curtains cover the walls, which go up two stories. Paper lanterns from IKEA spot the ceiling and are illuminated with blue bulbs. A short, smallish stage is in the back corner. The beer is reasonably priced ($3 for a tall can of Lone Star) but the barely elevated stage leaves something to be desired. Even though I’m well over 6 ft. tall, I have trouble viewing the stage unless up close. Luckily, the sound is pretty good and there’s plenty of room.

We arrived just after Freelance Whales went on to a crowd that was larger than expected. Though I was a bit distracted — like I said, the view from the back sucks ass — Freelance Whales put on an enjoyable set of joyous, quirky pop with a slight country twang driven by a cornucopia of instruments, choral harmonies and hushed, high-pitched male vocals (sounds like The Format, Loney Dear). They also win points for a spot-on cover of Broken Social Scene’s “7/4 Shoreline.”

Pushing up close for a better view of the stage, we were treated to a set of beautiful music from the lovely London five-piece Fanfarlo. The band’s sound will immediately strike a chord with fans of Arcade Fire and Beirut but has a more poppy delivery not unlike that of Coldplay circa 2000.

The band has toured extensively and has played SXSW several times over the past few years. The experience on the road shows. The percussion, violin and guitars, all softened on the album and tucked away under layers of male and female vocals, were far more vibrant live. Fanfarlo played every track from their debut Reservoir, and without exception, every song was an improvement over the album. An unreleased song was included on the set list as well, a tune the guys said they wrote when stuck in the tour van one day.

The band started their set with a stripped down version of “I’m A Pilot” but turned up the heat on “The Walls Are Coming Down,” opening with a minute of percussive stage stomping before the rest of the band jumped in.

The guys came out for a planned encore of “Ghosts,” but as the crowd begged for even more, the band whispered among themselves to find a song they all remembered (sadly, it wasn’t “We Live By The Lake,” which several people in the audience requested but the band said it had forgotten how to play) before settling on “Sand and Ice.”

LISTEN
Fanfarlo on Hype Machine
Freelance Whales on MySpace