Fleet Foxes @ The Junction 11/11/08

Fleet Foxes played to a sell-out crowd at the Junction on Tuesday night. Their self-titled LP needs little introduction, but any fear that it might translate into anything less than an entrancing live experience was utterly quashed on a night where the band gave about as generous and memorable live set as a band with such a slim discography could possibly give.

It’s unfortunate that I can’t really say the same for the support act J Tillman, who is in fact the Fleet Foxes drummer. The guy’s not short of charisma or humour, but it’s a shame that he couldn’t purvey that in his music: just one man playing fairly sparse acoustic guitar to the same plodding tempo over and over. At least he may have a future career in comedy. Oh yeah, and possibly in Fleet Foxes too.

Fleet Foxes were a marvel. Opening seamlessly with the intro of Sun Giant bleeding into Sun It Rises and a rollicking Ragged Wood, the band instantly portrayed a great understanding of how to provide their songs with enough instrumental, vocal and percussive flourishes to distinguish them from their album counterparts. The sound balance between Robin Pecknold’s acoustic pickings and Skye Skjelset’s sinewy guitar lines was perfect throughout. And then of course there was those vocal harmonies, those wonderful vocal harmonies.

Not that Robin Pecknold is incapable of holding things up by himself. Halfway through the set, the rest of the band left the stage, allowing Pecknold to shine with the stunning Oliver James. Its intricate pickings followed by the way those final vocals seem to hang there forever were a reminder after J Tillman’s deathly dull ramblings of what one man and an acoustic guitar can achieve. A similar sense of awe was achieved during the encore with Tiger Mountain Peasant Song.

When the band rejoined the stage for the main set, Skye Skjelset awkwardly announced a marriage proposal for one lucky(?) member of the audience. It was a night of considerable interaction with the crowd, not all of it good, owing to certain members of the crowd insisting on making idiots of themselves. The band handled it all admirably, however, and not without a fair share of humour. As they closed out the night with a personal fave Blue Ridge Mountains, I took heart from knowing this was just one of many sold-out nights they had played on this tour. That a band that plays music this blissful and distinctive can attract the commercial attention to match the critical acclaim gives me some faith in the human race in general. It’s just a shame that lewd, heckling comments such as “did you f*ck him?” go some way towards erasing that good vibe.