Free Energy, London Camden Barfly

October 26, 2009

Review 1:

FREE ENERGY ARE SHIT-HOT AND ARE THE BAND EQUIVALENT OF THIS:

Review 2:

Free Energy are still shit hot, but there’s a bit more you need to know. ‘More Than A Feeling’, for starters; y’all know that song? By Boston? They’re like that song, but more so. With simple good-time chord progressions and the most shamelessly ostentatiously guitar-playing I’ve heard since Pinkerton-era Weezer, the stage at the Barfly more resembles the outtakes of a road movie.

‘Free Energy’ rips through the venue (oddly consisting mostly under-12s, just to set the scene) with, well, free energy; the songs feel like an all-encompassing alleviation of anything and everything that’s not quite right. It’s a complete misnomer that Free Energy have been compared with the likes of The Strokes and Pavement, in fact it’s just lazy. They actually sound like Fleetwood Mac, and by god that’s a great thing.

The “you might miss that song, you may never meet that girl” free-wheeling on ‘Dark Trance’ is just as mad-eyed as the sound, and the backbeats are the astoundingly steady backbone of the whole enterprise.

There’s absolutely no let up in this live show, and the craftmanship of their songs more than justifies the nostalgia for the often cringed at Thin Lizzy. Yet the funnest thing is that this is no parody, they’re just having a totally rad time.

The volume’s flicked to max, the sideburns have been given a couple extra days to luxuriate, the aviators are freshly thrown by the wayside and heck, Free Energy are ready and set to blow more minds than this half-empty venue. There’re mellower songs too, sure, but only mellow in the sense that the cowbell hits feel hazy. I don’t know the track names on the most part but it’s not relevant – I’m just awash with excitement and a picture of the open road. I’ve got Charlie’s Angels hair in my mind, and I’m applying my bronzer as my boyfriend takes another swig from the bottle of Jack Daniel’s.

Go see them quick-sharp before they get their own Wikipedia page.

And one last thing: it’s more of a bombshell that it’s 2009 and I’m watching this rather than that Free Energy are signed to DFA. Almost got a way with not mentioning it…