FLEET FOXES /// LIVE

It’s A Cloud Cover Offering. Coming out of the evergreen woodwork is a fleet of musical melodic talent, comparable to the likes of Simon & Garfunkel, fierce and commanding attention in the most quiet of ways.  It’s at times an ‘a capella lullaby’ led by Robin Pecknold with his abashed disposition and intermittent shrugs.  It’s as if he’s surprised that we all showed up to their show. It’s the humility of these lumberjack look-alikes that keeps this band grounded.  But when their hymnal praise begins to resonate, with the backdrop stage walls paneled with strips of crinkled paper mimicking tree trunks, the audience gets completely lost in their intense swallowing sound.  These kids hail from Kirkland – suburbia of Puget Sound Seattle battery limits and founder of Costco where you can buy Nutella spread by the tub.  Matured beyond their years and with of course pre-disposed brilliant musical genes, the homegrown grassroots talent flourished and came out in 2006 with a vibe reminiscent of 60s sanctified folk rock.  As the troubadours hit the stage that night and began their set, I was overcome and completely homesick.  See, I had just left behind my home in Seattle to discover new horizons, but realized that home had just followed me.  There I was in a room of almost two thousand, suddenly alone, and fondly nostalgic of the fresh cold crisp winter air, the expanses of green over green, the snow covered mountain hikes and the fixating cloud cover. And all because Pecknold’s spellbinding voice has the gift to take me back to that place.  If you’re not prepared for it, you might just fall asleep to the relaxing trance their voices in unison can quickly put you in, but if you want to stay awake (and you should) – this is fair warning.  They are unquestionably a band you should experience live. Just pick up a Starbucks latte beforehand – and lift up that cup of Joe founded once again… in the big bad-ass State of Fleet Foxes’ Washington.

Tags: Concert Review, Costco, Fleet Foxes, Kirkland, Nutella, Robin Pecknold, Seattle, Simon & Garfunkel, Starbucks