frontman Sam France is a beautiful, eye-linered rock and roll mess, and the band’s raucous show at the in Denver on Monday night was much the same: pretty, fun, and messy. Onstage, the impossibly lithe France channels the rock and roll gods: Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Jim Morrison, Mick Jagger. The threat of things becoming seriously unhinged seems very real at a Foxygen show, but itap also exhilarating to see France pull his own hair, scream like a madman, perform cheerleader-style aerobics and jump off the stage into the crowd. And sometimes, when the intensity of the band and the quality of the songs come together and meet France’s mania as equal partners, the music is great.
Musically, Foxygen represents a millennial postmodern composite of a broad spectrum of inspirations: imagine a mash-up of the Mamas and the Papas, the Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Carpenters and the Sex Pistols and you might be on the right track. Opening with the bright “How Can you Really” from this month’s release “….And Star Power,” the band started things out on a happy, hyper ’70s pop note. A notable balance to France’s onstage mania came from the three terrific back-up singer/dancers in bespangled cocktail dresses and white high top tennis shoes who sang and danced through the night with intensity and precision.
France’s onstage antics are so amped up that it is sometimes hard to pay attention to whatap happening musically, but the large, nine-piece ensemble was flexible and adept at moving through the big changes featured in many Foxygen songs, as evidenced early on by their romp through “Blue Mountain”, from last years critical/commercial success “We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic.”
Jonathan Rado, the band’s co-founder and France’s writing partner, contributes lots of interesting keyboard sounds and seems to ground the band musically. And, despite lots of press over the past year that points to conflict between the pair, there was no onstage indication of strife in the band.
There were moments on Monday night when France’s intensity overshadowed the intensity of the band and the music, and some of their ’70s soft-rock ballads, like the saccharine “Coulda Been My Love,” failed to connect with the otherwise enthusiastic crowd. Ultimately, though, those moments were eclipsed by the fierce energy of France and the band in their adrenaline-fueled monster jams like their encore. Foxygen is an amalgam of rock and roll theater, youthful exuberance and a wide-range of musical influences, but historically, their kind of intensity is hard to control and maintain- so catch them while you can.
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Amy McGrath is a Denver-based writer and regular contributor to Reverb.
Michael McGrath is a Denver area photographer. His work is available at . Visit .
