This was The Fiery Furnaces‘ first visit to Manchester since we saw them supporting Franz Ferdinand at the Academy just over two years ago. It seems like a long wait and since that gig they’ve released exactly four albums of dizzying prog pop including one recorded with their grandmother that I’ve yet to get a copy of, put off by reviewers seemingly no longer able to cope with their increasing eccentricity. Or maybe it’s shit, I guess I’ll buy it soon and find out.

Their latest album, Bitter Tea, is stunning, their best yet; an expertly concocted brew of beautiful pop and cunning experimentation. It’s heavily keyboard driven and there’s barely a guitar on it yet for this tour to promote it The Fiery Furnaces have left their keyboards at home and gone for a pared-down guitar, bass, drums, vocals combo. And it works a treat. The opening “Chris Michaels” sets the scene, constantly shifting pace as Eleanor and Matt Friedberger trade lines, Eleanor prowling the stage, looking intense, unhappy (her monitor wasn’t working, we find out later) while Matt plays his guitar like he’s trying to play three different parts at once. Monitor problems are sorted and the band fly through an excellent set consisting mainly of Bitter Tea tracks with the odd choice pick from their back catalogue. As you would expect most of them sound vastly different to their recorded versions, especially the new songs which, I’d like to think, sound like they did when they were written, before Matt took them into the studio and locked the door behind him. “Benton Harbor Blues”, “I’m In No Mood” and a frantic “Police Sweater Blood Vow” work brilliantly but the remodelled “Teach Me Sweetheart” is disappointing, especially as it’s my favourite song on the album, as are revamped versions of “My Dog Was Lost” and “Straight Street” which manage to lose some of the intensity of their recorded counterparts. Best of all is an aching “Black Hearted Boy” while “The Garfield El” from Rehearsing My Choir and the title track of that album are mesmerising with Eleanor’s dizzying wordplay a sight (and sound) to behold. How she memorises all those words and spits them out at such speed, I don’t know. But she does and it’s incredible and makes me regret that I haven’t bought that album yet. The bassist and drummer must also be applauded for some sterling work, providing a backbone upon which Matt could lay down his amazing, multi-faceted guitar parts. “Blueberry Boat” rounded off a great gig where punk battled it out with prog and everybody won.

Earlier we had quite enjoyed Scissors For Lefty from San Franscisco who sounded very British, being particularly influenced by The Libertines. They had some good songs including an excellent ballad during which the singer left the stage to walk among the sparse audience and briefly serenade JustHipper; it was the sort of track you’d hope The Strokes would be writing by now if they’d grown up and stopped reading the NME. Another song flew perilously close to Bravery territory but was redeemed by the fact that, well, Scissors For Lefty aren’t The Bravery and can do that sort of thing a whole lot better. They’re headlining the Night & Day later in the month and I might just find myself down there again.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 12th, 2006 at 7:43 pm by The Ledge and is filed under Gig Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.