Last time I left a Fool’s Gold concert at Madame JoJo’s, I said I thought it was the best show I’d ever attended. Yesterday night, after the band’s return for White Heat‘s 7th birthday, there was no wavering: that was definitely the best gig I’ve witnessed.
With many familiar faces from January’s show back for more, the Californians again played scarcely over half-a-dozen songs during an hour’s stay on stage. Once more they played their ‘hits’ (Surprise Hotel and Nadine) early. Once more the chief band members descended into the crowd at the climax, playing on and endlessly, relentlessly, on. And once more the entire audience bayed and boogied along in total rapture throughout, enjoyment levels turned up to 11.
I think it’s the sheer joy that separates Fool’s Gold from all other bands in a live environment. If I closed my eyes during their songs, letting the beats was over me, then that was all I felt: joy. Each of their tunes - be it a Hebrew-inspired dirge, a highlife anthem or an Arabic-style rock slalom – screams of the stuff, and of the heavenly, restorative qualities that music potentially has.
Perhaps it’s because tracks like Surprise Hotel can truly live on stage (see a former example, below). In the studio this anthem is trimmed to a sensible, radio-friendly four minutes: it feels constrained and wrong, like a tiger in a zoo pen, or a rebellious rock kid given a tidy haircut. Played live, Surprise Hotel is unfettered, with epic build-ups, endless reprises, ad-libbed choruses, instrumental solos and a degree of giddy chaos.
Eventually, Fool’s Gold live sets morph into long, saintly singalongs, a thrilling jam where everyone, band and audience, come together. For their penultimate track last night, members of supporting acts joined Fool’s Gold on stage to make a 11-strong raucous racket. When the Fool’s Gold members entered the crowd the sound gradually stripped away until just the rhythm was left, the bare skeleton of the song. By this stage we were all – Fool’s Gold included – crouching on the floor, with that rhythm and its vocal ingrained on our souls. We chanted it repeatedly, on and on, wishing it never had to end. ’Euphoric’ doesn’t begin to cover it.
I’ve never felt so good, so exultant, during a show. Ordinarily, for example, I can’t dance for toffee: but last night, whether I shook, wriggled, wiggled or jumped, I moved like a dream. Even the most stolid stand-stillers were looking down to find their hips in flux. At the start of the gig, a group of noisy black kids in front of me seemed certain to be irritating rude boys; by the end they were heroes who knew every song by heart, and I’d have married them all. If someone stood on my toe, I got a hugged apology; outside after, everyone swayed, smiled and just gasped in glee.
And eventually I hobbled and wobbled home, still feeling nothing but joy.
Looks like I really missed something. You loved it, this guy loved it http://www.mewbox.com/blog/fools-gold-interview-white-heat/ and I think next time I’ll have to make sure I’m there…
Yes, I really would recommend! Reading a review of a show in Brighton, it sounds like every single FG concert is just a blast. The Mewbox interview mentions a return in autumn, so there’s your chance – I can guarantee I’ll be there!
Thanks for the comment and link, much appreciated – Richard