Watching Fanfarlo at The Bell House in Brooklyn last night, you get the feeling that this might be one of the last times you'll get to see the band in such a small and intimate style venue. Just one night prior in NYC, the band sold out The Bowery Ballroom, after the show got moved from the much smaller Mercury Lounge. Last nights show at The Bell House was the bands last of a quick one week tour of the U.S, with select dates on the East and West Coasts, and all this comes without the band even having a full on release of their fantastic debut Reservoir, which has only been available digitally or through the bands website. That will all change shortly as the group recently signed on with Atlantic/Canvasback for Reservoirs re-release, which is due out Oct. 6th.The band who's music ranges from sweeping anthems to gypsy-infused folk, kicked off the night with a slightly stripped back version of "Drowning Men," with just three members, before swelling back later to it's usual six and seven. Besides a slight tuning problem in the middle, the band was tight throughout the set, interchanging instruments and harmonies, with Cathy Lucas especially strong, lending backing vocals, along with violin, mandolin and xylophone. With the just under one hour set, the band played mostly tracks off of 'Reservoir", with particular highlights for me being the full band sing along of,"The Walls are Coming Down", "Harold T. Wilkins" which I liked much better than the album version, the slow stomping "I'm A Pilot" and the delicate epic, "Comets." The band did manage to blend in a new song before the night was done called, "Waiting in the Wings" which showed a diverse sound that should quell the critics, before wrapping up the night with encores of "Ghosts," which saw the band handing out whirling noise-making tubes (check the video below) to help with the intro. The festivities ended with a cover of Neutral Milk Hotel's, "In The Airplane Over The Sea" before Balthazar lost his voice, which he said was starting to go on him.
for more info on the band visit Fanfarlo.com
photo credit- G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times (from Monday's Bowery show)
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