Fang Island

I saw Fang Island a few days ago at the Hawthorne Theater. I was worried that the hot weather that day would make the venue next to unbearable, but luckily (or unluckily for the band) only about 40 people showed up for the show.

The first opening band was the Hugs, an indie rock band from Portland. While not terrible, lead singer and guitarist Danny Delegato's "rocker" persona left a lot to be desired. It was obvious that he was in his own world and it was the rest of the band who kept the songs together.

The next band, the five piece Zechs Marquise, got the audience into the opening band (which is a really hard thing to do) with their funk inspired prog music. The band handled complicated key and time signature changes with ease, which is a big accomplishment when you have two guitarists, a bassist, drummer, and keys player. Their songs could have fallen apart at any point, but the great part was that they never did.

Finally Fang Island came on and the party really got started. Sadly it was a last minute decision to go to this show so I didn't have time to prepare and bring my camera with me which, because of Fang Island's great dance moves and stage performance, was sad. The band played a variety of songs, many of which were off of their new album, Major. While definitely not as innovative or unique as their first album, Fang Island, Major isn't a total disappoint. The songs on it are fun and danceable with a capital D.

The energy on their album definetly carried into their live show- there really wasn't one down moment. I was glad, at that point, that it was such a small show because if it was any bigger all of the people dancing would have made the venue unbearably hot.

One of the best parts of the show was hanging out with some of the members of Fang Island after their set. They were all really friendly (there is nothing better than nice musicians) and when they found out it was the birthday of a friend who came to the show with me they gave her a free copy of their new album on vinyl- nicest band ever? Nicest band ever.

Check out Fang Island's "Life Coach".