Apparently, Fiery Furnaces spear-headed the concert series at East River Park, hanging a "clothesline in honor of the tenements that used to be over there." Oh, how New York. The dome of the stage even resembles one of the Brooklyn bicycle caps Spike Lee used to wear back in the day.
Opening acts can often reveal something about the headlining band, and Drug Rug certainly exaggerated Fiery Furnaces' folkish tendencies. That, and their surprisingly low-key nature. It seems like no one is talking about their upcoming August 19th album release, and the attendance at the concert was lower than I anticipated. Low-key seems like such an odd adjective for such a quirky band with such a distinctive musical niche. However, Fiery Furnaces' quirk is distinctively mature: singer Eleanor Friedberger delivers spoken-word tinged, gritty vocals that almost verge on lacking pitch quality all-together, there are constant tempo/key changes, the songs carry dark undertones, careful schizophrenia and intermittent honky-tonk keyboard classical piano interludes. Particularly in a live setting, listening to Fiery Furnaces makes me feel like I'm experiencing being an adult through an infants eyes and the reverse- at the same time.
While there is certainly a lot of thought that goes into their music, there is simply too much to digest live- a lot of abrupt musical changes, wordy lyrics, and a vocalist with a pitch-to-noise ratio that resembles that of a timpani. Their ability to deconstruct and reconstruct a song but keep it cohesive is impressive, but difficult to follow unless close attention is paid. It's interesting that with all of this complexity, Fiery Furnaces chooses non-dynamic instruments. Non-dynamic instruments are just what I call instruments that don't respond to idiosyncrasies in the artist's changing velocity when playing notes. MEANING it sounds more mechanical, because the instruments cannot convey an artist's idiosyncratic expression.
That being said, the quality of the sound systems and the balance of the instruments were excellent, and the two drummers (count 'em, TWO) were fabulously in-sync and provided perfect rhythmic accompaniment. Plus, Eleanor looked like she was jabbing her guitar every time she played it and did the "walking-backward-awkwardly-while-clapping-thing" I love to watch (click here, then here).
Opening acts can often reveal something about the headlining band, and Drug Rug certainly exaggerated Fiery Furnaces' folkish tendencies. That, and their surprisingly low-key nature. It seems like no one is talking about their upcoming August 19th album release, and the attendance at the concert was lower than I anticipated. Low-key seems like such an odd adjective for such a quirky band with such a distinctive musical niche. However, Fiery Furnaces' quirk is distinctively mature: singer Eleanor Friedberger delivers spoken-word tinged, gritty vocals that almost verge on lacking pitch quality all-together, there are constant tempo/key changes, the songs carry dark undertones, careful schizophrenia and intermittent honky-tonk keyboard classical piano interludes. Particularly in a live setting, listening to Fiery Furnaces makes me feel like I'm experiencing being an adult through an infants eyes and the reverse- at the same time.
While there is certainly a lot of thought that goes into their music, there is simply too much to digest live- a lot of abrupt musical changes, wordy lyrics, and a vocalist with a pitch-to-noise ratio that resembles that of a timpani. Their ability to deconstruct and reconstruct a song but keep it cohesive is impressive, but difficult to follow unless close attention is paid. It's interesting that with all of this complexity, Fiery Furnaces chooses non-dynamic instruments. Non-dynamic instruments are just what I call instruments that don't respond to idiosyncrasies in the artist's changing velocity when playing notes. MEANING it sounds more mechanical, because the instruments cannot convey an artist's idiosyncratic expression.
That being said, the quality of the sound systems and the balance of the instruments were excellent, and the two drummers (count 'em, TWO) were fabulously in-sync and provided perfect rhythmic accompaniment. Plus, Eleanor looked like she was jabbing her guitar every time she played it and did the "walking-backward-awkwardly-while-clapping-thing" I love to watch (click here, then here).
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