Fyrewurks

Jan 28 2010

Fiery Furnaces @ Cain’s Ballroom 01-24-10

Published by Jennifer at 8:30 pm under Music

On Sunday night, my sister and I came in from the frigid air of a quiet downtown Tulsa to see the Fiery Furnaces at Cain’s Ballroom. The Brooklyn brother-sister team (Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger) was laid back when we arrived: Eleanor hanging out in the small crowd consisting of 30-40 fans, and Matt selling t-shirts until they went on.

Once they did get on stage, they played sans keyboards, sans Matt’s vocals, and très rapide. I can only assume that they played such fast versions of their songs to make up for the lack of keyboards and extra vocals; granted, it is customary to speed up songs during live performaces, but just when you thought Eleanor couldn’t sing/talk and faster, she’d pour out a montage of Blueberry Boat songs faster than an auctioneer selling cattle. And although keyboards are typically a key part of their songs, they still managed to put on a pretty good show without them… considering it a was a 2nd-stage stop on a Sunday night.

They played songs not only from “Blueberry Boat,” but also from “Bitter Tea” and “I’m Going Away,” including the wonderfully ominous “The End is Near” which could be talking about anything from a relationship to apocalypse with “The end is near, the end is near the time has come. There ain’t no way, nobody will save you now… don’t even think that there’s a way out of this. Down the road and up the creek it’s over, it’s such a clear and certain hell of a thing, it’s over.”

And even though we had to be at work the next morning, it was worth it because it was such a small crowd in a relaxed venue, making for an intimate evening with the Friedbergers.