Back in October of last year I wrote a very scathing review of (the) Foals first London headline show at the Scala. The hype which surrounded the band was ridiculous and I was getting very bored of hearing that they were the new Radiohead, Babyshambles, Kaiser Chiefs etc…upon reflection my review was pretty negative however I’ve had the last few months to ponder whether they’ll ever live up to the hype, and if they are in fact any good.
The good thing about hype, if such a thing exists, is that every three months there is a swathe of new bands exciting the media and being heralded as “the next big thing”. It’s unbelievable to think that back in October of last year The Tings Tings had not played in London, no one had heard of The Courteeners, MGMT had not been called the new Klaxons and the world was without Jo Lean and the Jing Jang Jong. I guess bearing the meters of column inches that the above bands have received it’s surprising that anyone would still be interested by last October’s next big thing. That said Foals are quite different and have continued to excite radio DJ’s and journalists for the last six months.
Although I was less than impressed when I saw them at the Scala I do like their debut album “Antidotes” which has one of the best singles of the year so far. “Cassius” has been a favourite on John Kennedy’s XFM Exposure is probably the catchiest single since The Ting Ting’s debut “Great DJ”. The show at the Astoria, which is by far the biggest gig that they have done was a raucous affair. Their fans seems to be genuinely into them even though they are unable to do a set longer than 45 minutes. However as a band they have become tighter and more competent since their gig at The scala and musically they don’t sound like anything else on the lice scene. I may have given their performance at The Scala a paltry 4/10 however tonight’s effort was much better.
Written by John Rahim