November 20 2010
Ward Lane, Hamilton
The Naked and Famous with F In Math
Saturday 12th September, 2009
Flow Bar, Hamilton
They’ve got a couple of new members, and a bunch of new tunes – who are they? The Naked And Famous of course! And this Saturday night they treated the city of the future to their very first live performance as a sparkling, almost-new five piece. Bringing with them electronic pop wonder, Michael Logie – aka F In Math was just the icing on an already super sweet cake that I’d been looking forward to delving into for some time now.
This man is a genius on and off stage and knows exactly how to work his charisma as he addresses the people comically. Opening with the delightfully bouncy Dinosaur Faith Test, it was wicked to watch people getting right into it. One guy in particular took my award for coolest dancing as he leapt around with squeaky shoes on the concrete floor. He was amazing. But not quite as amazing as the charmer on stage who got into another favorite that features on his Myspace page, Attacked By A Squirrel On Crack.
If you’ve not yet heard it, I recommend you head on over and have a listen because it’s sure to put a smile on your face. Other songs performed on the night with just as much enthusiasm were Five Things, People! People! and No Face – keeping everyone’s feet tapping. I’d have to say one of best parts of the colourful set was when Logie jokingly stated, ‘I can’t believe the All Blacks lost’, followed by some chuckling and a heavier track, Demon Skull. Brilliant.
Finishing up with Beatles classic - Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, it wasn’t long before The Naked And Famous kids were up and ready to go. I’ve seen them a few times now, and I must say they are getting better every time. How that’s possible, I have no idea, but they’re doing it! Spies Spies Spies was the first tune they got into before popular favourite, Meeting People Sucks. At this stage, it was obvious that newbie’s to the group Jesse Wood and David Beadle were having no trouble settling into their first live show with the band.
The wonderous, Dadada was performed with all the grace and beauty I remember from previous gigs making me want to squeal with delight. Xayalith and Powers are such the treat to watch together and I heard some awesome comments from people who had never seen them before. Neat! Almost as neat as the ‘yet to be named’ song that followed which we were informed was it’s first live outing. Lucky!
More musical treats came with Bells, Birds and Part 2 – all off their latest EP, No Light. The tambourine was whipped out for a few moments too, which is always a popular choice in my books. Front-man Thom Powers even got into it racing over to join in the action. Last songs of their set were two more gorgeous new ones, Sun and their latest release All Of This which went down very well indeed. These guys have certainly got something special and I’m looking forward to their third release that’s hopefully due out early next year.
