Live Review: Foals @ The Academy, Dublin

There's always a certain sense of occasion about the Heineken Green Spheres events. Maybe it's that people tend to get a bit carried away when it come to free stuff? Maybe it's the extensive promotion in the run up to the events? Or maybe it's the fact that the roster of artists they've had play are worth getting excited about.

Either way, there was a palpable sense of anticipation when my friend and I touched down at The Academy for the latest installment in the Green Spheres franchise and promptly took advantage of our free beer voucher.

First up to entertain the crowds were Belfast rockers, LaFaro. Not short of enthusiasm, the quartet are a bit too 'heavy' for my liking and, dare I say, a tad derivative. That said, they seemed to appeal to some audience members, who thrashed about almost as violently as their guitarist (who, at one point, lost his balance and fell over completely.)

Next to grace the stage were London four-piece Bombay Bicycle Club with their charming brand of sprightly indie-pop. They can hardly be described as the 'edgiest' of outfits and banter between songs was kept to a minimum, but Bombay Bicycle Club adeptly proved that they've got the chops.

Jack Steadman's lilting vocal is just as impressive in a live setting as it is on record and hefty portions of the crowd sang along gleefully to their signature hits 'Always Like This', 'Evening/Morning' and 'Dust on the Ground'. On most occasions, they'd have upstaged the main act. No pressure, Foals.

I'd seen Foals play at this same venue a little over two years ago and have always regarded it as one of the best gigs I've ever been too. However, I've seen them play twice since but never experienced quite the same headrush, so was beginning to question whether maybe I'd exaggerated how good they'd been on the first occasion.

On top of this concern was the unavoidable issue of how different their latest album, 'Total Life Forever', sounds to its predecessor 'Antidotes'. I'm a fan of both but, honestly, I struggled to see how it was all going to fit together in a live set and presumed they'd just shoehorn some old stuff in at the end.

Not so.

After opening with the title track from the new album and following it with early hit 'Cassius', these concerns were obliterated. As a friend said on the night, seeing Foals play live kind of makes sense of the apparent change of direction they've taken with the new album.

As for the headrush? Oh, it was there alright. Within moments of the band taking to the stage, I found myself swept away in the crowd, bouncing up and down like a 16-year-old fanboy. As they worked their way through a near-flawless set, I was able to assert that there was nothing rose-tinted about my memories of that first encounter with Foals.

Highlights of their set included frontman Yannis indulging in an extended bout of crowd surfing and a rousing performance of the incredible 'Spanish Sahara'. The build in the song lends itself really well to a live setting and the big release towards the end of the song felt positively euphoric.

If I'd one complaint it would probably be that they neglected to include 'Hummer', the song that first introduced me to Foals, in their encore. However, considering how much Foals have matured musically since releasing that track three years ago, it's understandable that they'd want to distance themselves from it. Frankly, I'm more excited about the next phase of their sonic evolution.

[Images: Kieran Frost and Sarah Buckley]