At the Commodore Ballroom on Sunday, August 7. Second show August 8

Oxford indie rockers Foals played to a soldout boozy crowd at the Commodore Ballroom on Sunday.

The performance, albeit a short one, was full of energy and passion. You can really tell that these guys are serious about their music and the crowd just as serious about having a seriously sloppy time. Prior to the band taking the stage, Vancouver’s own JPNSGRLS displayed a lot of spirit and emotion in their set--a great lead up to Foals and definitely worth checking out. 

Next, the background music between sets started to get louder and louder until the lights dimmed. It got the crowd pretty riled up. Once Foals took the stage, all bets were off and the drunken crowd was in a wild frenzy.

Foals opened with “Snake Oil” from the new album What Went Down, which was extremely powerful. Their music has a great balance of intricate guitar work and mammoth-sized riffing, and this song is no exception. Singer/guitarist Yannis Philippakis has a surprisingly short stature, but he is able to get into the groove of the music and rock out while playing beautifully at the same time.

There was no shortage of long hair and moustaches and spillage of overpriced drinks.  Unlike the slightly obnoxious crowd, several almost-fights, and some of the worst dance moves ever seen, the entire band was great, super tight and accentuating each note with such conviction you would think its members had been doing this for longer than their 10 years as a band. Philippakis dedicated one of the songs to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, saying he is “one of the only politicians not following the path of darkness”, as well as another for the fans that were at Foals' 2008 Richards on Richards show. 

With each song, the crowd took it in in a sloppily drunk fashion. Fans proceeded to take their shirts off and propelled them around, hitting people in the face while dancing. Another fan removing his sandals, putting them on his hands for the entire show, with beer-drenched socks on the Commodore floor.  I can’t make this stuff up, people.

Moving into tracks from  earlier albums, “Olympic Airways” from 2008’s Antidotes and “My Number” from 2010’s Holy Fire, you could tell the band members also enjoying themselves playing with such intensity and reminiscent of an early Bloc Party in terms of dynamics and song style.

Of note were the lights for this show, whoever their lighting tech is, they are doing a fantastic job. It was totally dialed in with the music, with flashes, colour changes, and strobes at exactly the right moments, and a laser being reflected off of three different disco balls created an almost light-shower effect on the band and the crowd simultaneously. The set was peppered with tracks from each album, with each song stronger than the one previous.

Set closer “Inhaler” from Holy Fire was particularly intense, with the bouncy melodic verses getting the whole place jumping, and then kicking into a face-melting chorus (notably heavier than the recorded version), that would have made Nirvana proud.

The encore had Philippakis surfing the crowd while belting out the words to the title track to the newest album, “What Went Down”, with volcanic ferocity, and the audience singing along with him.

The songs took on a whole new fierceness live. The full set, including the encore, was a short one, at one hour and 15 minutes in total. It felt longer somehow, and with the sweat dripping off of their faces it goes to show that quality over quantity is always the way to go.