Despite always sounding a little bit thin on their albums, Les Savy Fav have always been one of the best live bands around. There’s a reason why they’ve been going for over a decade and also why according to Wikipedia, London based band Jetplane Landing have penned a tribute entitled: “Why Do They Never Play Les Savy Fav On The Radio?” Honestly.
This was their debut show in Liverpool, and it is difficult to imagine a better venue for their first appearance than the avant-garde, high on pretension but high-on quality setting of the Kazimier.
Despite the rambunctious finale that promised to be provided by Les Savy Fav and infant indie-supergroup Young Legionnaire, the night started off with some rather tame math-rock from local band Dire Wolfe.
The rather subtle and not-too-offensive seemed to be a reflection of the Kazimier at the time, as the place was only half-full. Mind you, their set was pretty much faultless, everything sounded tight and I expect to see them a couple more times around Liverpool.
After the rather subdued efforts of the previous two support acts it was time for Young Legionnaire to get up in front of Liverpool and prove that they are a bit more than the spare parts discarded by The Automatic (singer and guitarist Paul Mullen), Bloc Party (bassist Gordon Moakes) and not La Roux (originally drummer Will Bowerman has been replaced on this tour by Dean Pearson).
They pretty much set their stall out on the first song, which was probably louder than all the previous songs if they were added up together and mixed in a rolling, overall decibel pot. It’s hard to recall if they did actually ever turn the volume down; I think they had to stop to tune up once.
However, the energy supplied from Young Legionnaire was superb and gave a much needed kick-up-the-arse to proceedings. Frontman Paul Mullen was particularly brutal in his deliver; his Gibson SG in hand ‘Angus Young-style’ and his foot on the monitor ‘Steve Harris-style’. Stand out song was their single from last year ‘Colossus’.
All in all, the tone was set nicely for Les Savy Fav. After a quick break (it’s always funny how the biggest band playing can sound check the quickest), the New Yorkers burst onto the stage, and lead singer Harrison Haynes surprised everyone by appearing from the back of the crowd in neon-green face paint and green smurf-hat. However, this was only the start of proceedings.
Bear in mind that whilst the band was churning songs of the quality of “Pots and Pans” “What Would Wolves Do?” and “Who Rocks the Party”, Harrison managed to hit people with a large Gandalf-inspired staff, strip down to his underwear, snog someone at the other end of the room and hang upside down from the top floor before finally pulling on a tiger suit for the encore.
If Liverpool needed introduced to Les Savy Fav then it is surely past formal handshakes now. The crowd and band seem to have taken to each other straight away, and if the zany New Yorkers ever feel like staying over again for a bit (a lot) more than coffee then they will forever be welcome.
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