Foals At The Lexington 1st July 2009.

Probably my personal highlight moment of The Breeders ATP in May came during Foals set. Foals took a bit of a risk and decided to try out some new songs during their Sunday headlining slot (which the NME decided to be a bit cry-baby about during their review, but who takes that rag seriously anymore? If anything it was just further proof of what I and many others have been saying for a while now, that they are no longer actually a music mag and are in fact just the indie-kids version of Heat magazine). It totally paid off. It showed that a) you don't have to do a crowd pleasing set to please a crowd, and b) that anyone who has ever cynically written them off is wrong. This band, whether they stick around for years to come or burn out in a couple, are, for want of a better way to phrase it, the real deal. The best songs of the set were two of the new songs, and the set overall was extremely good, and managed to be a standout of a festival that was full of really fucking good sets. Anyway there was one new song in particular, don't know what it's called, that was just phenomenal. For three or four minutes this song was going, and it was really good, like the same sort of thing that Foals had already done, but a progression of it. A level-up version of Foals if you will. Then they get to the crescendo, and it's good. It's really good. And just as you think they're about to wrap it up, they suddenly kick the song back into life with a part 2, and this part 2 is like that level-up version of Foals taken up by another 4 or 5 levels. It produced sheer, pure excitement in me. It made me literally scream "FUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!" then they got to the crescendo. More screaming. THEN IT KICKED IN AGAIN!!! A continuation of Part 2 that came in as if the song had a life of it's own or something. "Woah, what do you think yer doing? Keep it going, I aint done here guys!". Like the song itself took hold of the band and forced a reprise of itself. It was sheer total and utter euphoria.

At The Lexington, Foals were playing a warm up show for their gig supporting Blur at Hyde Park the next day. Now, you could be forgiven for assuming that with a warm up gig, they would you know, be warming up and not make so much effort. Foals aren't like that tho. If they've got a gig, no matter what it is, they go all out with it. So the tiny crowd of us who managed to get tickets were treated to an awesome Foals set, with all the throwing about of selves, the passionate playing and the Yannis climbing on & over whatever he physically can antics that would expect at any Foals show. As with the ATP performance, they air some new songs and show us a taster of what's to come with the next album. About half to two-thirds of the way thru the set they played one of the new songs. It was real good. REAL good. Better than anything they'd played so far. Then it got to the crescendo, and I realised what was coming next. It was a real hairs-on-the-back-of-the-neck moment. Then it kicked in. It was THAT song. Any of you ever get that thing where you're listening to a song, and it's so good and moves and/or excites you so much that your face buzzes? Well I get that, and when part 2 kicked in my face was BUZZING. And the song panned out the same as it had before and all I could think was something the equivalent to that scream of "FUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!" that I had before.

And sure, people got more into the familiar ones and danced at their known favourites, but that song, THAT song, that was the moment of the gig that just made you realise the real power of this band.

Fuck, that sounds wanky but seriously, Foals have fucking STRUCK GOLD with that song.

"To keep us young..."