Foals @ O2 Academy – Liverpool, U.K.

The small room at O2 Academy 2 has a 500 person capacity so it is rare for a band of this calibre to play a venue this size. Tonight the Foals will play 2 gigs, the first at 7pm and a second later at 9 pm. Two set lists, two one-hour gigs and two groups of lucky fans who managed to buy tickets. All tickets were sold in matter of seconds. The concert started right on at 7pm and the band started with the funky guitar riff from the song ‘Wake me up’ included on their last album ‘Life is yours’. It’s Friday night and the party in Liverpool has just started.

The next two songs kept a party climate in the room, we could hear songs ‘The Runner’ and ‘2001’. The whole space changed into a dance floor. People were dancing from all the way back to front of the room. The fourth song ‘Blue Blood’ which was played for the first time on this tour mellowed the atmosphere a bit but the next songs ‘Life is yours’ and ‘In degrees’ with their groovy rhythms, and the summery vibe, once again filled the hot, and now, sweaty room. The incredible performance of ‘Late night’ confirms that the band is in a great shape. Fans are red hot now and we just passed midpoint of the set, many peoples favourite song, ‘My number’ is next. Starting with the ‘Black gold’ we can hear the ‘shoegaze’ side of Foals; they are sounding like a proper rock band now. Guitar sounds with mixed pulsating light creates an amazing spectacle. ‘A knife in the ocean’ and angry ‘Black bull’ get us closer to the end of the evening. How quickly this hour disappeared? For a grand finale band performed ‘Inhaler’, What a great song and what a privilege to be able to hear it live, in such an intimate enclosed space, amazing evening, amazing band. What a show! 

Foals will headline Reading and Leeds Festival this summer and will be touring in the USA and Mexico supporting Paramore. Go and see them. 

06 July // New Orleans, LA // Smoothie King Center08 July // Fort Worth, TX // Dickies Arena09 July  // Austin, TX // Moody Center11 July // Houston, TX // Toyota Center13 July // Denver, CO // Ball Arena16 July // San Diego, CA // Viejas Arena19 July // Los Angeles, CA // Kia Forum22 July// San Francisco, CA // Chase Center24 July // Seattle, WA // Climate Pledge Arena25 July // Portland, OR // Veterans Memorial Coliseum27 July // Salt Lake City, UT // Vivint Arena29 July // Tulsa, OK // BOK Center30 July // St. Louis, MO // Enterprise Center02 August // St. Paul, MN // Xcel Energy Center

FOALS

Photos + Review by Tomas Adam