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The Futureheads
Webster Hall
Filter Grade: 88%
by Brendan Sullivan | 01.01.2007

The Futureheads - Live - Webster Hall, New York, NY

Somewhere in Akron, OH Mark Mothersbaugh is enjoying his retirement with the rest of Devo. They sit in lawn chairs, they wear different outfits, and once every few days the Goodyear Blimp rolls by and they can toast to their home city. And as long as they stayed away from Webster Hall in New York last night, they can die in piece.

But god forbid—god forbid!—they caught some of The Futureheads epic performance. "Three-part rock-harmonies? Barbershop intros? Two-part audience sing alongs? Why didn't we do more of that, guys?" The last time The Futureheads came to town they were opening for slightly larger band (Franz Ferdinand) for a crowd of 3500. One of the several singers, Ross Millard, said they were blessed to be opening for Franz since "No one in America knows us." Yet David Bowie and Jarvis Cocker turned up to their show in New York and became instant fans.

This time through they will headline their own gigs, filling Webster Hall and keeping an eager line waiting outside. It will almost be a shame to see them inevitably outgrow the smaller theaters. For Barber-shop-rock you really need to get a good echo going.

The Sunderland four-piece opened with "Decent Days and Nights." Something seemed off at first, but maybe it's because they're used to playing to a few thousand more New Yorkers. They didn't seem to hit their stride until later when they started a two-part audience singalong/harmony for the epic intro to "Hounds of Love." From there they finally let their Ramones influences show by jamming one song into the next. You can almost hear Joey Ramone whispering into Millard's ear during the fade out of each song, "Ready for the next?
Okay, one, chew, tree, four!" Surprisingly they had enough left in their voices to start their encore "Le Garage", the delicate and complicated opener from their self-titled album.

The Futureheads - Live- Webster Hall – New York, NY Part Deux
Filter Grade: 86%
by Christine Werthman

While making talent-free hacks sound like butter in the studio might be no sweat for music industry gurus, the task of capturing the essence of a good live band is a trick not yet mastered. As the Yeah Yeah Yeahs proved on Fever To Tell, the energy of a band’s live show can get lost in the translation from stage to CD. Case in point, The Futureheads essentially put their most recent, good, but not good enough, self-titled album to shame in the midst of the bright lights at New York City’s Webster Hall.

The power quartet of singers – Ross Millard (guitar), Jaff (bass) and brothers Dave (drums) and Barry Hyde (guitar) – opened the show with the album’s first single “Decent Days and Nights”. Although this popular opener gave most fans exactly what they wanted to hear out of the show, no one headed for the door when it ended. The band plugged through its punchy set in less than one attention-holding hour. This ferocious speed bordered on holding up under the 1970s punk rule of keeping songs under 2 minutes. Members of the relatively stagnant audience who attempted to keep with the beat ended up performing seizure-like dance moves and violent head bobs. Others simply resigned to staring dumbstruck while the post-punk UKers attacked the tunes in their collared

The Futureheads might be partial to violent cut-offs and speedy guitars, but their best communal asset sets them aside from most acts of their kind: yes, they can sing. After years of hoping, a cappella geeks and punk fans can finally unite. In the least cheesy way possible, the group harmonized and blended while nixing the guitars, bass and drums on the Kate Bush cover “Hounds of Love” in favor of a vocals-only opening. The group did not seem to differentiate between a voice and a guitar as instruments, using both in equal parts to thicken up the sound.

All elements of the performance were set on attack mode, from the incessant beating of drums to the blasted vocals. This approach was entertaining for the most part, but like a bratty 5-year-old hopped up on Kool-Aid and Pixie Stix, the band’s spastic antics got old. The Futureheads obviously posses the talent to go places, but the road is not quite as exciting without a little versatility in sound. Half of the audience might have been blasted away within the first five minutes of the show, but without any real variation in the level of intensity, the rest of the set fell flat.

Luckily for the group, where the energy of the live show fails to get captured on CD, the album sweeps up the softer sounds lost onstage. And so it seems that only with CD and concert tickets in hand can listeners truly get a fix on The Futureheads rambunctious energy and sincere moments.