LIVE: Foals w/ Everything Everything – SSE Wembley Arena 16.02.16

Mere months after their triumphant headlining European tour, Everything Everything take a step forwards towards the arenas but backwards to a supporting slot; so a step sideways, without the spectacular light-show that backdropped their own dates, yet with the tricks in their catalogue to put on a headline worthy show.

Latest album Get To Heaven steals the show – the futuristic, world music-flavoured tracks delving from hip-hop (‘The Wheel (Is Turning Now)’), calypso (‘Get To Heaven’) and Lennon-esque lyrical matter (‘No Reptiles’) through a trance filter. It’s easy to place the band in the now familiar “Math Rock” bracket, but when you break down the poetry, the non-specific genre of the tracks and the hypnotic atmosphere that this combination creates, Everything Everything have more in common with Kate Bush or Pink Floyd than any of their contemporaries.

Foals are equally difficult to categorise, and rightfully so. Surely an act who strives to be placed in a certain section of the record shop is making music the machine way. Their slow build from the small, sweat box venues to an arena tour (by way of festival headline spots) is particularly admirable considering – four albums in – they’re yet to score a Top 20 single. The same fate has bestowed many a legendary rock act, and while their debut was designed for the skinny jean scene, last year’s What Went Down boats huge riffs and coasting tunes to rival the loudest of rock ’n’ roll legends.

Opener ‘Snake Oil’ highlights it, the lo-fi intro giving way for verses with groove, before a chorus that drops into head banging territory. ‘Mountain At My Gates’ also shifts, the added drum beat giving the last minute twice the impact of an otherwise steady song. When their pop songs kick in (‘My Number’, ‘Balloons’) the surprisingly chaotic moshpit becomes a dancefloor, helped in part by the pink and blue 80’s Top Of The Pops influenced lighting. (You know you’ve made it when the technology behind you is this impressive. It’s unlikely you’ll see them entering the stage via huge lemons next however…)

And then, of course, there are the more atmospheric moments; ‘Birch Tree’ and ‘Give It All’ give time for reflection, the former building to euphoria with a rhythmic synth crescendo, while ‘Spanish Sahara’ is their on-shoulder, phone-lights-aloft number.

Holy Fire songs are giving a strong outing, with ‘Providence’ allowing for Yannis Philppakis to do what frontmen do best; Striding in front of his fans but not quite letting those outstretched arms touch him, he feeds off of their energy, giving added gusto to already raucous moments in the set. ‘Inhaler’ and What Went Down’s title track are equally treated, but by closer ‘Two Steps, Twice’ he’s right in there, carried by the crowd to deliver the stop/start track that takes them all back to where it began.

In a surprisingly humble moment, he tells the crowd how they wrote their debut “in a tiny room in Oxford, we never thought we’d be introducing it Wembley”, but no matter where they fare on the weekly singles rundown, these songs were only ever designed to be played to thousands in huge spaces.

Dan Bull
@danbull7069

Dan Bull

Dan Bull

Reviews Editor
London. Likes: Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, Prince Charles Cinema, Duran Duran Dislikes: Soreen, All-hits setlists, "I liked them before everyone else..."