Foals heats up First Avenue with powerful performance

On the heals of their recently released fifth album Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 1, British rock band Foals tried tearing the roof off of First Avenue in Minneapolis. While the first few songs lacked a punch, the energy progressively escalated song by song until singer Yannis Philippakis hung by the edge of the balcony and jumped into the crowd during the final encore “Two Steps, Twice”. By this time, most of the crowd on the floor of the mainroom was covered in sweat and rocking with arms held high.

Foals mixed in a few new songs from Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 1, but focused heavily on their hits. “Spanish Sahara” from their 2010 release Total Life Forever was incredible, but the song of the night may have been “Inhaler” from the band’s 2013 release Holy Fire. It was somehow dancey and extremely heavy at the same time and Philippakis stage dove into the crowd mid-song.

Had this been a weekend instead of a Tuesday night, I’m sure the show would have been sold out. It was obvious a majority of the crowd on the main floor were big time fans, and Foals fed off of them and the energy reciprocated back as the band hammered out their songs. Yannis Philippakis mentioned his appreciation on several occasions, standing on the edge of the stage and enticing the crowd to push the energy higher.

I’ve been a fan of Foals for several years, yet this was my first time seeing them live. The guitars were crunchy and the rhythm section was tight. I was very impressed with their live show and hope to see them again soon.