Super Furry Animals @ Mod Club Theatre

February 21st, 2008

Last night I checked out Super Furry Animals & Times New Viking at the Mod Club. The Furries have been making music for nearly fifteen years and have TONS of hits that you probably didn’t even know were by them, and Times New Viking are a “one to watch” band.

When I arrived, Times New Viking were ready to get started. The first track they played (what was it?) was definitely my favourite, and I was excited to play more, but unfortunately for the band, their already noisy set was stunted by technical difficulties from the start. Still, their newest album Rip It Off is worth a listen on its own. Pitchfork says so.

Note to Times New Viking: Please add more size small t-shirts to your merch repertoire. You knew that your shows would be TEEMING with hipsters after Pitchfork’s glowing review, and you also knew that the average hipster does NOT wear an XL shirt. What gives!

When it was finally time for Super Furry Animals to take the stage, people were restless. They were about fifteen minutes behind schedule, and with over half an hour between bands it felt like an eternity! Before anyone got on stage we started to hear chirping noises. And then bullfrogs. And then some sort of mating call, and then all the noises at once. One by one the Welshmen got on stage, with Gruff Rhys joining them at the end – dude was wearing a COLOSSAL Power Rangers-style helmet. Or more accurately, mask, because you couldn’t see where his face was inside, but he held the microphone to the upper right to sing the opening verse of Slow Life (this pleased me greatly – I was hoping they’d play it!!). After Slow Life they immediately launched into another hit, (Drawing) Rings Around The World. I was pretty pleased with the setlist all night, they played a great mix of songs from all eight of their albums.

Just before they played Zoom!, Gruff asked everyone to help out with audience participation. He had the house lights turned up so he could see us and then asked everyone to make bunny ears and wiggle our fingers throughout. And everyone pretty much did. The song seemed to last a really long time – really epic. And then immediately after, they busted out the four-part anthem Receptacle For The Respectable – Gruff even took out carrots and celery and chewed them for the crunching finale of the song (Paul McCartney‘s vegetable chewing was recorded over the phone for the studio version).

The only thing I didn’t like about the set (and I can’t remember from previous shows if this is typical of an SFA show) was the large amount of backing tracks and pre-recorded vocals. At some points no one was even singing…it was all backing tracks. I can understand how during a song like The Man Don’t Give A F**k, Gruff might get tired of singing – I mean, the line “You know they don’t give a f**k about anybody else” is repeated forty-eight times in a row (sidenote: they released a live, 23 minute version in 2004 where the chorus is repeated 100 times). But come on…

Setlist:
Slow Life
(Drawing) Rings Around The World
The Gateway Song
Run-Away
Golden Retriever
Do Or Die
??
Northern Lites
She’s Got Spies
The Gift That Keeps Giving
Zoom!
Receptacle For The Respectable
Juxtapozed With U
Into The Night
??
Calimero (in Welsh)
Hello Sunshine
The Man Don’t Give A F**k
Keep The Cosmic Trigger Happy

Those two songs that I can’t identify are driving me nuts. I tried to lyric search them to no avail. If you were there and you know what they were, please post in the comments!

As you can see, the band didn’t play an encore, which I LOVE. Back in the day encores used to be an impromptu surprise based on crowd enthusiasm, but nowadays they’re slotted in and scheduled just like the rest of the setlist. Sometimes bands don’t even leave the stage for more than 30 seconds before rushing back out with an insincere “OK, OK, you love us. FINE, we’ll play another song.” But I love it when bands go out with a bang.

And last night people actually DID try to earn an encore – the clapping and chanting continued for a good ten minutes, but it was past Mod Club curfew (midnight) at that point. Terrific show!

Links:
MySpace: Super Furry Animals
Official Site: Super Furry Animals
MySpace: Times New Viking

Posted on Thursday, February 21st, 2008 at 12:10 pm by Sarah Taylor and is filed under Concerts & Events.