Last Thursday I found myself with no solid plans at all after work, so before lunch rolled around I rememberd that was the day Foster the People were going to be in town. Given how busy the past month was with shows, I decided not to buy a ticket. But after checking out the setlist the tour had been grooving to, I acquired a great deal on a resale seat possibly the closest I’ve ever sat at that venue. And off I went!
What was also a little exciting was getting to see Goth Babe as the opening act! I’m nto a die hard fan, but “Weekend Friend” and “End Summer” are some of my favorite jams thanks to Sirius XM back in the day. Most of the other tracks didn’t really sound all that different from each other, but the vocals and production were good quality, so I was happy for it. There was an awful lot of set up time between his set and Foster the People’s, but in time they did come to the stage and opened with “Life on the Nickel,” an apt choice I would have never considered.
I’d always gotten the impression that Mark Foster was sick and tired of playing songs from their debut album, Torches, but maybe he’s changed his tune, because we were practically treated to the whole thing! “Miss You” was a realy treat to hear live! I may have heard it only one other time from them live, and it was so, so good. “Houdini,” “Helena Beat,” and of course “Pumped Up Kicks” were all killer, but maybe someday I will get to hear “Warrant” live. Way more songs from their sophomore flop made it onto the setlist than I would have ever imagined, but of course not the likes of “Best Friends.” I think we also missed out on some winners from the Sacred Hearts Club album, but maybe they were tired of playing those tracks.
I will say I stopped keeping track of their releases after that, so the handful of tracks that made it to the setlist from their last two albums were kind of lost on me. In any case, they sounded phenomenal! Hearing all of the songs from Torches again was like waking up some sort of sleeper agent within me. My sister and I listened to that album so much we’d probably scare someone with how well we know the lyrics and little instrumental quirks of each song. It really makes me want to listen to it with her again front to back, so maybe we need to hang out and do that again soon. If I hadn’t jumped on the ticket so last minute she actually would have joined me. Until the next show, I guess.
