This blog’s not in the habit of gig reviews, but Fool’s Gold last night was so stonkingly, stupidly superb that something simply has to be said.
They were headlining Madame JoJo’s excellent weekly White Heat night (a total bargain at £5); it was sold out and the atmosphere was electric the moment the LA seven-piece took to the stage. Upon sighting them, Some Of It Was True’s rules of music #2 was cited: bands/artists who aren’t physically captivating but are doing very well can automatically assumed to be brilliant. The logic held: launching with a woozy, extended reprise of Nadine, and then a ten-minute, faster and still faster version of Surprise Hotel, Fool’s Gold instantly intoxicated.
Their music is so rich and so varied. To call it African, which this blog has no doubt done, is far too simplistic; yes they bear traces of every African style imaginable – from tribal percussion to Tuareg blues – but there’s also 1950s jazz and jive in here, and some Caribbean tropicana, and this and that and X and Y. Each tune is lovingly crafted, full of eclectic instruments, gorgeous rhythms and a real flair for composition. If you don’t like Fool’s Gold, you don’t like music. It’s that simple.
The multi-culturality of the audience seemed to bear this fact out. Over there were what looked like youthful rudeboys, jabbing their fingers in woozy delight. Behind, an ageing, mothbally punk. Gay men were cheering in the corner; fringed scenesters and pretty blonde girls with too much make-up bobbed along on the stairs. A goth smiled at the back. Everyone was there from Plain Janes to sleek stylistas, and everyone bloody loved it. The cheer for each tune, and especially for the super-tight sax, drum and guitar work, was as sustained and euphoric as claps can have ever been granted a gig of that size. (The show above seemed to have a similarly riotous atmosphere.)
Eventually, their members drenched in sweat and dancing in the crowd to a chanty Krishna-like melody, Fool’s Gold played their last. It was beautiful, incessant and I think the best gig I’ve ever attended.
MySpace | Buy (album) | MP3: Fool’s Gold – Nadine (Surprise Hotel on previous blog)
Wow! They sound great so much good stuff from LA at the moment. Something of the “Dengue Fever” about them don’t you think ?