The sun is out in Cardiff on this Thursday evening in August and live music is finally back, with the first big concert in the capital for about a year and a half. The setting couldn’t be any more perfect than at the castle; right in the centre of the city. And the 10,000+ people that are here this evening are here to see one of the best bands in the country today; Foals.
Having already being delayed from the previous dates, I think it’s fair to say that the anticipation is palpable both amongst fans and band alike. Proceedings are started off with local band Islet who have been doing the rounds for over a decade themselves and are well known within the Cardiff music scene. The sound is serene and perfect for those early birds sat on the grass and soaking in the scenery.
They’re followed by Everything Everything whose brand of quirky indie and off beat lyrics get everyone to have a bit of a dance for the first time. It’s almost irresistible to listen to “No Reptiles” and hear its iconic line “It’s alright to feel like a fat child in a pushchair” and not have the biggest smile on your face. There’s a good mixture of older material including the infectious (pardon the pun) “Cough Cough” and “Kemosabe” to newer songs like “Arch Enemy” and “Violent Sun”. In no time at all the set closes with “Distant Past” and you would find it hard not to get on your feet and dance about.
The wait for Foals to play their first gig back has been 530 days, almost as long as the queue for a beer tonight. They’re renowned for their energetic live performances and come straight out of the gates swinging with the blistering “Black Bull”. For those at the front, you can see that there is about 18 months’ worth of frustration, not being able to go to gigs, being released in the pit.
Their voices are given a proper warm up with “Mountain at My Gates” afterwards”, followed by a couple more hits from “Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 2”. Both “Wash Off” and “The Runner” have a real full-bodied punch of a tone in comparison to their old school offerings with the likes of “Olympic Airways” or “Balloons”. Around 14 years ago, they were playing these songs just across the road in the famous and intimate Clwb Ifor Bach and I don’t think that anyone could argue that they don’t deserve to be here tonight.
Unfortunately what’s disappointing is that due to a slight breeze, if you aren’t in the front third of the crowd, the full impact of the sound is somewhat lost in the air. However if you are in the sweet spot, you are in for a real treat. “In Degrees” sounds as groovy as ever and is perfect for a warm summer’s evening.
However the real surprise is how the outro blends into a brand new song “Novo” which is premiered for the first time tonight. Following in the same vein as the later track, it’s a dancy- more upbeat number with frontman Yannis chanting “Wake Me Up” during the catchy chorus. He has previously teased that the new material will point to a “brighter future” and tonight he states that there is still plenty more where that came from.
From the new to the old, “Blue Blood” the opening track to their second album “Total Life Forever” gets its first outing since 2016 and along with fan favourite “Black Gold”, it’s great to see the 2010 album getting some well deserved love as it’s sometimes overlooked amongst the plethora of hits they have. “My Number” unsurprisingly has everyone at the castle bouncing and singing along, however the true highlight comes not long afterwards.
There probably hasn’t been a better written song in the past 10 years than the sublime “Spanish Sahara”. As it starts the crowd don’t want to sing along as they want to just bathe and bask in its beauty. With my arms aloft in the air I could feel each and every hair stand on end as is builds and builds to that euphoric drop and when it does, boy does it feel good. Every single person there is in the moment and there is nowhere else that they would rather be than right there.
“Inhaler” on record is already a beast in and of itself but live it’s a totally more vicious animal. The pits at the front are opening up and everybody young or old is getting involved. Right before the final breakdown, everyone is instructed to crouch down on the floor before kicking in with that riff again and everyone going absolutely crazy. They clearly listen to the requests of their fans as they close of the set with the 10 minute epic “Neptune”. A song so grand in scale and magnitude that a castle is the only real appropriate setting for something like this.
Triumphantly coming back on for the encore; things get even “spicier” in their terms with “What Went Down”; probably still their heaviest song to date. When Foals are at their most ferocious, they are at their most exciting and the crowds go as crazy in the pits as any metal concert that I’ve ever been to. The chants for “Two Steps Twice” come long before the actual encore but when it does get played, it feels as though this is the culmination of what everyone has been building up to tonight. The “Ba Ba’s” are sung around the castle grounds as the song is built up and up right to the release and just like at the beginning of the gig, everyone lets loose and shakes off a year and a half of not being able to do this.
If anything there is even more energy here at the end than at the start of the night. The cobwebs have finally been blown off and live music is back. I’m not sure that the crowd tonight would think of many better ways to experience their first concert in a while than this one tonight. We can be thankful that normality is starting to settle back in and we can be grateful that Foals are back to get us more excited about music again.