Furnaces of the Unexpected

The Fiery Furnaces played in Sydney this week and it seemed ridiculous to miss them after enjoying their recordings so much. So I tried to shrugged off my old man insecurities and mingled with the rather mixed crowd at the Metro (it's great little venue, btw).

The band was tight (and needed to be) as the music was played at a frenetic pace. It ended up being one 45 minute suite that crammed together a lot of their songs, some of which were in radically different formats: "Blueberry Boat" was almost unrecognisable - all the nifty interplays were stripped down to a 3 or 4 chord rip. The only breaks were when Andy Knowles and Toshi Yano (drummer and bass / organ / synth player respectively) went off stage for one song and an actual stoppage between 2 songs near the end. At last the audience was able to clap and shout 'hoorah' and so on but I think we wanted to do that right at the beginning. The non-stop flow of the songs was just too mind-numbing to contend with. I've heard some other live bootlegs and they usually string together 3-4 songs in a group but now they seem to be taking it to absurd extremes.

As for the people themselves... I'd heard that Matt (on the right above) was a bit surly and sometimes even very angry at the other band members if they even fluffed one note. And he didn't dissapoint this time with a curled lip, a constant clucking of the tongue and a million mile stare I'm glad I wasn't receiving. And... they were all playing really well!! Eleanor (on the left) seemed slightly frightened to be there but was more comfortable with a guitar in her hands and even did a couple of rock star jumps (a'la The Who). But when she came back to earth she looked around and seemed surprised that she would do anything so gaucely rock! Toshi reminded me a lot of the keyboard player from Radio Birdman - Pip Hoyle - with a small occassional pout and a similarity in the style of their hair flicking. Luckily he had a good rapport with Andy who was the most energetic of the bunch. In fact, he played the drummer-loon too perfection.

I can't say I had a great time - the format and their on-stage precense were too unsettling for that - but there were enough of their almost perfect songs in place to make it an interesting night out.

[PS - They supported Franz Ferdinand which is something they've done for a month or so and are continuing to do for a little while (which is a very weird thing - they seem completely incompatable). Franz were terrific: cartoon new-wave pop stars, throwing in a raft of useless jerky, robotic moves, thin ties and pointy shoes, choppy Gang of Four rhythm guitar, Haircut 100 tunefullness and fantastic audience participation.]