The Brooklyn-based Fiery Furnaces played at SPACE gallery last Saturday in support of Widow City, their sixth full-length release in four years. Portland’s Phantom Buffalo opened, playing a few songs from their previous Shishimumu, but mostly selections from their forthcoming Take To The Trees. The crowd grew to capacity before the opening set finished.
The Fiery Furnaces are as prolific on the road as they are in the studio. Within their airtight set, songs from each of their albums were re-crafted to fit the current tour’s ’70s fuzz-rock sound. On the records, the band’s sound is varied. Mathew Friedberger, the Fiery Furnaces’ producer and songwriter, incorporates pop, blues, electronics and long-winded character-driven lyrical excursions together to form a thick conceptual sound. This live version of the Furnaces was a minimalistic, spasming rock group. The band consisted of Mathew Friedberger on keyboards, his sister Eleanor Friedberger on lead vocals, Jason Loewenstein on bass and Bob D’Amico on drums.
The masterful distorted bass virtually eliminated the need for an electric guitar. The songs were often fused within each other, reworked to the point where they were unrecognizable to their recorded version. The fast and changing rhythmic patterns and time changes teetered on the edge of becoming prog-rock. Eleanor’s vocal delivery was incredible. Her voice was pulsating and hypnotizing on tracks like “Automatic Husband” and “Blueberry Boat,” with the same surgical focus and passion as a 1966 Dylan.
At one point, I heard someone say the band sounded sloppy, and I couldn’t figure out if we were listening to the same music or not. Not only was the sound extremely rehearsed, but the precision of each band member’s delivery was the best part of the show. It was loud and powerful, and one of the most refreshing examples of a band giving an audience a completely unique live musical experience rather than a verbatim performance of a record.