Monday, November 26, 2012

Fanfarlo @ Union Chapel 22.11.12



 As any year, 2009 was populated with great tracks and artists coming up. Fanfarlo with their debut album Reservoir were one of them and Ghosts was by far one of my favorite tracks of that same year. It reminded me a bit of Arcade Fire with traces of folk... and by today its still one of the songs that I take most pleasure listening to.

Fast forward a few years later and in 2012 Rooms Filled With Light came out, having De.con.struc.tion as the single who would introduce their sophomore studio project to the audience. In fact, the song actually came out a year before the album, almost working like a teaser and that certainly did the trick. After hearing that track for the first time, my expectations went sky-high. De.con.struc.tion was - and still is - my top Fanfarlo song and one of 2012's best (or should I just label it as 2011?).

So, obviously, this would be a gig that I would not want to miss out and specially knowing it was on my doorstep. Their live performance took place just around the corner from where I live in Highbury & Islington. The venue is called Union Chapel and as you can guess from the name... its a very old chapel that occasionally throws in a musical show.


It's a magical place I tell you! I've been there before when I was still living in Portugal and came in to London with a group of friends - not even dreaming that one day I would have my life in the English capital. What lead me to go to that chapel back in the day were Au Revoir Simone (if you still haven't heard, please check it out). I remember being highly impressed and surprised that a place like that would be used as a venue. Maybe it was a London thing... I don't know. What I do know is that I was happy just for being part of that whole experience, which is quite different not only because of the environment but also the way the set-up is made. For instances, there are only seated places.

So, back to Fanfarlo...


They started around 9'ish and played for about 1h30m, going through both albums and also introducing some of their newest work, looking to get some feedback from the audience, which they did to certain extent, but for some reason, even though the venue was a lot more intimate - easy enough for the audience to establish an ongoing conversation with the band - people were very shy, despite Fanfarlo's best efforts to engage those present.

All and all it was great show, even baring in mind I was disappointed with the line-up, since it only provided 1 out of my top 3 songs (Ghosts and Shiny Things were left out) and even that one track - De.con.struc.tion didn't exactly reached the level I was expecting live - but still, great to listen to making it's way easy to the list of highlights.
 

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