Foster the People @ Oxford ArtFactory, Sydney (14/02/2011)

Thu 17th Feb, 2011 in Gig Reviews

It is rare to see an international band touring our shores on the back of an EP. Rarer yet, Foster the People have somehow managed to achieve touring on their three song debut EP. On top of that, charging $50 on the door and still managing to fill the Oxford Art Factory to the brim! That is a lot of hype to live up to.

To set the tone for this intriguing evening was Belles Will Ring. When I reviewed the band two weeks ago I didn’t hear one dying ferret squeal, but a few were let loose tonight. It seemed hitting notes was as hard as hitting all the elks in the bonus rounds of Buck Hunter. Band energy was way down and it wasn’t until halfway through their set that they received more than a polite applause for new single Come North With Me Baby, Wow. Thankfully some decent guitar solos toward the end of their set earned them some crowd respect.

The once three piece, possibly four piece Foster the People take to the stage as five pieces to help reproduce their sound. And if it’s the rolling bass line of Pumped Up Kicks that brought you tonight you may feel like you walked into the wrong venue. In fact if you were expecting their EP, we were a couple of songs in and they hadn’t yet felt a need to dip into it. Better yet, they didn’t need to.

Houdini is the first EP song played, greeted with a few screams from the already vocal crowd. Then moving to the darker and more drum filled sound of the never before played Just Here to Dance. It was three songs later that Pumped Up Kicks was played and to be honest it was a little disappointing. This was the big song you expect the crowd to go mental to, however it seemed to be the ballad of the evening. I’m not saying the crowd was stagnant, they just bopped and moved as they had all night.

One song later the band leave the stage to prolonged high pitch screams from the crowd, very quickly to return with final EP track Helena Beach which incredibly brings the house down. Certainly a band that does not seem to record anywhere near as vibrant as they sound live. Mark Foster is a hugely talented enigmatic frontman who plays every instrument on stage and the depth of sound on show here tonight was levels beyond you would expect from listening to Pumped Up Kicks. A stellar performance – do not miss them next time.