Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2011 > September > 19 > Entry
ACL Fest review: Fleet Foxes
Like Bon Iver, who played the Long Center earlier last week, Fleet Foxes first showed up in Austin during South by Southwest 2007, when they were a young, relatively unknown indie folk group with long beards and a love of vocals from the 60s and 70s. The Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkel and Crosby, Stills and Nash were a few of the comparisons that were thrown around. Five years later and these guys are playing to maybe 10,000-15,000 people right before Sunday headliners the Arcade Fire, on a stage that was used by both Kanye West and Stevie Wonder over the last couple days.
It’s kind of crazy, considering they have only two albums under their belts, one pretty good debut and a followup that has its moments but doesn’t quite pop like its predecessor. The music is mellow and melodic, and there are plenty of reasons why it wouldn’t translate in such a huge venue. For the most part, the band injected enough of their quiet-building-loud formula into the set that the sound didn’t die. Frontman Robin Pecknold begins with hushed lyrics accompanied only by his finger-picking; a verse goes by and he’s joined by a mandolin, some percussion, an upright bass. By the end of the song the band is loud, they’re all strumming away in a frenzy, singing in harmony. The crowd is paying attention.
So it went with a good number of tunes from the first record, including “Mykonos” and a sprawling “Ragged Wood.” “Sim Sala Bim,” from their more recent album “Helplessness Blues” blew up (as much as a mandolin-heavy folk number can) with the audience clapping along, as did closer “Helplessness Blues,” which opened with a guitar part that could have been cribbed from “Nebraska.” The funny thing about the set was that the better they were, the more they started to sound like a band that would win an Americana Music Award and less like one that would land on Pitchfork’s “best new music” list.
Follow Austin Music Source on Facebook and Twitter.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: ACL 2011
Comments
When commenting, we ask that you keep things civil and abide by our Visitor Agreement. To report comment abuse, click here.
By caleb
September 19, 2011 8:00 PM | Link to this
a bit dissapointed with your review, probably the most talented band up there. they play what they like sorry they dont try to appeal to everyone.
By bw
September 19, 2011 9:04 PM | Link to this
I agree with caleb. Fleet Foxes sounded absolutely incredible on Sunday. They are true musicians and hope they keep making albums for many years to come.