Not many secular bands have the guts to play a concert on Easter Sunday since many fans would rather be spending the holiday at home with their families or celebrating the holy day by going to church. But then again, most secular bands don’t evoke a spiritual experience with the music they create.
Fleet Foxes, however, played a packed show Sunday night, filling the Crystal Ballroom with their heavenly harmonies, and the audience was entranced by the performance.
The band claimed that it has played in Portland “twice as much” as its native Seattle, and considering this is the fourth performance in Oregon in the last year, that could very well be true. This concert was not simply a repeat of past shows, though, as the unique Easter experience proved.
The highlight of the night was the debut of three new songs. This Portland show marked the start of a brief west coast tour, Fleet Foxes’ first major tour in a few months, so this was the very first time that they played the new songs in front of a real audience.
The band seemed apprehensive of this first performance. Before launching into the first new song, main songwriter and frontman Robin Pecknold said, “It’s not quite done and I don’t know the structure of it yet. Or the lyrics.”
After such a humble introduction, Fleet Foxes unleashed a beautiful but simple song with Pecknold picking a 12-string guitar, never once forgetting the lyrics and with a seemingly perfect structure.
The two other new songs, scattered with well-known older songs throughout the evening, displayed a variety that incorporated old themes from the first album while branching out into new directions. Both songs were more upbeat than many of the past songs, one with a resounding synthesizer behind the usual acoustic guitar melodies, the other a fast-paced song characterized by Pecknold’s frequent use of falsetto vocals.
“Any constructive feedback would be good,” Pecknold said to an awestruck audience, who seemed incapable of dishing any feedback besides enthusiastic applause. “I’ve never felt so vulnerable in my life until this moment,” he continued on, not noticing the crowd’s positive ovation.
However, drummer Josh Tillman was quick to see that he was the one truly in control of Pecknold’s vulnerability, positioned directly behind the lead singer. “You’re really the most vulnerable to me,” Tillman said, cutting himself off before he launched into the details of the power he has over Pecknold sitting in that position.
Having only officially released one full-length album and an EP, all within the last year, the young band is in the trying, perhaps vulnerable, phase leading up to its sophomore release. They released “Fleet Foxes,” the sole full-length, less than a year ago to huge critical acclaim.
The album topped many prestigious best-of-the-year lists and even scored 9 out of 10 for the notoriously hard-to-please music criticism Internet publication Pitchfork Media.
Their recent performance exhibited their steady footing despite this time of transition as they easily moved between new songs to the older “classics,” which of course are in themselves less than a year old yet already classics in the indie music realm.
At the Crystal Ballroom performance, few fans sung along to the music, maybe because Fleet Foxes’ lyrics can be complex and hard to understand on the first few listens. Or maybe it was out of reverence and awe of the vocal performance they were witnessing.
Often labeled indie folk or baroque pop, Fleet Foxes truly defies genres with their catchy melodies. Influences like Neil Young, Bob Dylan, the Beach Boys and Crosby, Stills and Nash are prevalent in their music, yet not a single song sounds like an attempt to replicate these models.
Fleet Foxes has undeniably been the subject of constant buzz in the last year, but their past releases, performances and future promise prove that these five young, long-haired guys in flannel shirts have the talent to back up every positive review, compliment and resounding ovation.
Their whimsical melodies, whether on the album or blasting out of the speakers at the Crystal Ballroom, transport the listener to a grassy meadow or wooded forest where this peaceful, melodious music seems more at home. Even as the music carries outside of the concert venue onto busy Burnside Street, the vocal harmonies evoke a scene either of a tranquil stream in the mountains or a heavenly chorus descending into downtown Portland, making this Easter day performance worthwhile.
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