What happens when you spend months totally loving an album? Obviously you do everything you can to go see that band play. Apparently a lot of other people felt that way about Fanfarlo’s Reservoir because there was a thick line before the doors opened at The Echo, and there were plenty of kids with hopeful eyes and pouty mouths asking for tickets to the sold-out show.
Fanfarlo has big, luscious sounds with stomps, claps, epic horns, and vocals so sweet I can’t help but think of my dear love Jeff Mangum. When someone so great comes all the way from London to L.A., you don’t have any choice, you gotta go see them play.
When Fanfarlo started setting up there was a potpourri of instruments all over the place. It looked like there was hardly going to be room for the six of them to move. They started out with an acoustic version of “Drowning Men,” and then the sound turned into huge waves as they played “Pilot.” There was a ton of energy and motion coming from the teensy stage as they connected the end of “Pilot” to the beginning of “Finish Line” into one of those oh-my-God moments I haven’t felt since seeing The Arcade Fire tour for Funeral.
The frenzied deliciousness was broken when a guitar string snapped but after a moment to catch our collective breath, there were warm smiles and a treat of a new song, “Noose,” which is the sound that ghosts make when they strut over to a sexy party. They closed their set with “Luna” but that just wasn’t enough. I was floored by how amazing they were live, and everyone clapped and cheered until Simon and Cathy came back and sang to us with just a guitar and a mandolin. The rest of the band came back out, and they closed on “Reservoir,” leaving us breathless one last time.
Words: Roxy Roknian
Photos: Craig Parker
