Fanfarlo at The Echo – Photo Gallery and Review

What happens when you spend months totally loving an album? Obviously you do everything you can to go see that band play. Apparently a lot of other people felt that way about Fanfarlo’s Reservoir because there was a thick line before the doors opened at The Echo, and there were plenty of kids with hopeful eyes and pouty mouths asking for tickets to the sold-out show.

Fanfarlo has big, luscious sounds with stomps, claps, epic horns, and vocals so sweet I can’t help but think of my dear love Jeff Mangum. When someone so great comes all the way from London to L.A., you don’t have any choice, you gotta go see them play.

When Fanfarlo started setting up there was a potpourri of instruments all over the place. It looked like there was hardly going to be room for the six of them to move. They started out with an acoustic version of “Drowning Men,” and then the sound turned into huge waves as they played “Pilot.” There was a ton of energy and motion coming from the teensy stage as they connected the end of “Pilot” to the beginning of “Finish Line” into one of those oh-my-God moments I haven’t felt since seeing The Arcade Fire tour for Funeral.

The frenzied deliciousness was broken when a guitar string snapped but after a moment to catch our collective breath, there were warm smiles and a treat of a new song, “Noose,” which is the sound that ghosts make when they strut over to a sexy party. They closed their set with “Luna” but that just wasn’t enough. I was floored by how amazing they were live, and everyone clapped and cheered until Simon and Cathy came back and sang to us with just a guitar and a mandolin. The rest of the band came back out, and they closed on “Reservoir,” leaving us breathless one last time.

Words: Roxy Roknian

Photos: Craig Parker

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6 Responses to “Fanfarlo at The Echo – Photo Gallery and Review”

Staff Picks: Top 5 Shows of 2009 « Grimy Goods says:
June 12, 2010 at 5:46 pm
[...] Fanfarlo with Freelance Whales @ The Echo, Los Angeles [...]
Win Tickets to Fanfarlo at the El Rey Theatre This Saturday! « Grimy Goods says:
February 16, 2010 at 3:46 pm
[...] giving away a pair of tickets to go see Fanfarlo at the El Rey Theatre this Saturday, Feb. 20. Fanfarlo has big, luscious sounds with stomps, claps, [...]
Newly Released Fanfarlo Video for “I’m a Pilot” and New Tour Dates! « Grimy Goods says:
February 9, 2010 at 11:51 am
[...] out this sweet Fanfarlo video for “I’m A Pilot.” Recorded and Filmed a few months ago in November of [...]
Fanfarlo at the Echo – Video Review « Grimy Goods says:
December 1, 2009 at 10:22 am
[...] week we posted some amazing photos of Fanfarlo and their sold-out headlining show at the Echo. If you weren’t able to snag a ticket, you can [...]
Freelance Whales at the Echo – Photo Gallery and Review « Grimy Goods says:
November 27, 2009 at 1:11 pm
[...] was so excited about seeing Fanfarlo at The Echo on Monday, Nov. 23 that I didn’t even think about who was going to open. [...]
Freddy says:
November 25, 2009 at 9:26 pm
What a great show it was! Beautiful photos!