Fanfarlo is working out a new sound. This became evident Monday night, as the British quintet serenaded their audience of approximately 100 with new material and reinterpretations of back catalogue at Brighton Music Hall.
The band has only one album, 2009’s Reservoir, which is a folk-pop masterpiece that relies on the acoustic guitar work of front man Simon Balthazar coupled with the violin of multi-instrumentalist Cathy Lucas.
These stigmas were left somewhere back in the United Kingdom, as the Fanfarlo that was at Brighton Music Hall fell somewhere between Roxy Music and My Bloody Valentine.
Most songs were built around the sonic landscapes created by Lucas and multi-instrumentalist Leon Beckenham, with Balthazar rooting himself to a Fender Jaguar for the majority of the set.
The band open with several numbers from their forthcoming album, Rooms Filled With Light, before Lucas paused between songs to chant “U-S-A.”
Fanfarlo then went into a song their audience was familiar with, “I’m A Pilot,” the leadoff track from Reservoir.
Instead of the folky number from Reservoir, based around an acoustic guitar and violin, the song was presented almost completely electronically, with a mesh of synthesizers, Beckenham’s Jaguar and a spacey bass line from bassist Justin Finch.
The band’s set continued in the same vain, a slew of unreleased tracks peppered with new takes on old favorites. As some of the new material was quiet and droned on, I became lost and disinterested, but with every new take on an old number the band drew me back in.
While the club was nowhere near capacity, Fanfarlo’s fans showed their adoration and approval by dancing vigorously throughout the band’s set.
Fanfarlo in turn tipped their hat to the audience by treating them to selections from their first and only album, including “Comets,” “If It Is Growing” and “Drowning Men.”
The band closed with “The Walls Are Coming Down” from Reservoir with their audience bouncing around the tune of the synthesizers manned by Beckenham and Lucas and a thumping bass line anchored by Finch.
While it felt as if the band was still trying to find an identity for the songs off their forthcoming album, the reinterpretations of their old numbers provided Fanfarlo’s audience with something to say the concert was worth going to.
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