Foxygen at Rough Trade
photo by Amanda Hatfield

Foxygen previewed their new LP w/ a 5-piece horn section @ Rough Trade w/ Cut Worms (pics)

Foxygen‘s new album, Hang, won’t be out till mid-January but the band previewed much of it Thursday night (12/1) at a one-off show at Brooklyn’s Rough Trade. They sounded huge, which is what happens when you have a five-piece horn section with you, playing on almost every song. With the rest of the band, and a backup singer, that made for a crowded stage but Sam France still made space to be in constant motion, reveling in Frontman mode, busting out all sorts of moves.

Before they started on the new stuff, Foxygen warmed up the crowd with songs they knew, like “Shuggie” and “San Francisco,” before going into Hang‘s soulful new single “Follow the Leader” which sounded great. (Instagram video of that is below.) I’m not sure the LP’s sprawling, multi-part first single, “America,” makes any more sense to my ears in the live setting (it’s like the weird middle bit in Thunderclap Newman’s “Something In the Air” was its own five-minute song), but they really sold it last night. The rest of the new material seemed equally ambitious, with less obvious reference points this time around, and I’m not sure what to make of it all yet. But it does make me anxious to hear the album. It will all probably make more sense when their 2017 tour hits Terminal 5 in March.

Opening were Cut Worms, whose forthcoming album was produced by Foxygen’s Jonathan Rado, and who have morphed from a one-man show to a five-piece band. Max Clarke still has a firm grasp of his aesthetic, somewhere between the Everly Brothers and Harry Nilsson but with his own unique melodic spin, and with three guitars they sounded great. Still, and maybe this is because I didn’t know the new songs with the band, I still enjoyed the last few songs Max did solo the best.

Pictures of Cut Worms’ set, and more of Foxygen’s, are in the gallery above.

photos by Amanda Hatfield