Review: Foster The People at The Olympia 28th November 2011
Review: Ros Madigan
Photo: Sean Smyth
Foster The People first shot to my attention while I was away in the bands homeland of America. I had endless American kids, around the same age as myself, gloating about this cool band from “Cali”. It wasn’t long before ‘Pumped Up Kicks’ was brought to my attention. A favourite track on the college scene in America that would extend to one of the top hits of the summer. This was the track that would catapult Foster The People on a 6 month tour around the US and Europe only to end here in Ireland, in the humble surroundings of The Olympia.
Looking into the bands past, lead singer Mark Foster has the rock’n’roll CV of many great musicians gone by. He left home to follow a career in music and struggled to get noticed. He then dabbled in DJ’ing, playing small clubs, writing jingles (not so rock’n’roll) and then even got caught up in his own drug-fuelled downfall. This sounds like so many other biography stories in music history, but it is however, the many differences of Mark Foster that would lead to his bands success.
This was the final hurrah of the bands whirlwind tour of the world. The venue was full to the rafters and space was to be considered a luxury for the night as the band took to the stage. The night began as the night would continue with a big drumming intro for the track, ‘Houdini’. The set up on stage has the drummer to the very front of the stage, facing sideways. The end of the third track justifies this positioning, as I believe that percussion is one of the main attractions to a Foster The People show.
The energy on stage is electric as all members buzz around the stage with a raw energy that has the fans screaming. This energy is compounded by the light show master class on offer. Lighting is an integral part to any performance and I have recently seen a light show ruin a rather good show. In this case, the lighting is like an extra band member as every single chord change, pitch switch, beat drop and bass thump triggers a fascinating lighting onslaught.
Tracks such as ‘Helena Beat’ and ‘Call It What You Want’ had the crowd bouncing, with the latter song impressing particularly. Foster The People on the night could please any music fan as they delve into many genres of melodic dance-infused pop rock to raving electronic beat-driven indie pop.
This eclectic nature was to be topped off superbly as Foster The People would finish the show, in the way many of us would have expected, with ‘Pumped Up Kicks’. Not just any old version though, as Foster The People remixed their own track near the end and brought us through a near 8 minute long, dub-step and percussion lead version of the track.
The gig served as a memory trigger in these cold days leading up to Christmas 2011, as the whole crowd was transported back to those summer days at EP and further afield. Foster The People are a force to reckoned with as a live entity and have matched if not beaten most bands I have seen live this year. The real test for these guys is to produce a follow up record that will see them become a mainstay on our musical lookout. If I were a betting man, I wouldn’t bet against them.
Set List
Houdini
Miss You
Life On The Nickel
I Would Do Anything
Broken Jaw
Waste
Call It What You Want
Don’t Stop
Helena Beat
Warrant
Pumped Up Kicks
