To catch Foals in concert is to witness the amplification of the British band’s grand yet somewhat reserved studio energy. In other words, they rock. Or so they did with accelerating intensity throughout their set Sunday night at The Rave, supporting their fifth long-player, Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost: Part 1. Singer Yannis Philippakis strained with the urgency of a man ablaze.
Befitting a rock band with dance music forebears and a DJ who has hosted a club night in London, Foals’ seamless segues from song to song in the middle of the show fit their aesthetic handily. That move may also have served to loosen the feet from the floor for at least some attendees. If alt-rock show crowds aren’t given to dancing nowadays, some succumbed to the challenge, be it on their tip of the hat to Division at their most furious, “White Onions,” or the only superficially more somber “Spanish Sahara.”
The quintet had a U.S. radio breakthrough earlier this spring with the majestically arch, yet still danceable “Exists.” Fans, however, may have a handle on what song from Everything should be its next single, as the galloping skitter of “In Degrees” received more applause than their recent hit.
Satiating as Foals were, it would have been a shame to miss the opening acts. Atlanta trio Omni proffered skeletal, compact angularity through their guitar-drum-bass format with emotionally askew minimalism. Canadian ensemble Preoccupations used their industrial-sounding drum triggers and other electronic accompaniments in caustic ways. Foals came off as the middle ground between the extremes of the acts preceding them. It made for a brilliant lineup headlined by a band coming into their own brilliance.
