Foster the People / Zulu Winter

I arrived at the venue in plenty of time to get myself settled before the support act (this is a rarity for me but also a bonus of the gig being on a Friday night). Standing on the 1st level, I could see the sparseness of the crowd down below but knowing it was a sold out gig, I was presuming that many people were missing the support and turning up to see Foster The People alone.

The English five-piece Zulu Winter took to the stage with their quirky indie music vibe; the lead singer was a great howler with moans and howls playing a pivotal part in their music. They produce more serene indie than the edgier rockier stuff with their instruments never reaching full 'thrash' levels. The lead singer had a lot of energy spinning about the stage and their tune 'Let's Move Back To Front' stood out the most for me, as it raised the energy a bit. However, all in all their set never really peaked; it felt like the songs were building up at many points but then just petered out. A good indication of this was that you could unfortunately hear the crowd talking over some of their songs.



Foster the People came onstage in a fusion of strobe lighting and special effects and launched into what I can only describe as an energy-fuelled, passionate set. Each member of the Californian trio (as well as an extra keyboard player) injected as much enthusiasm as they could muster into playing their instruments.

Lead singer, Mark Foster, is a wonder to behold himself; if he wasn't crooning along with his sweet, mesmerizing voice, he was jerking across the stage with body-popping dance moves, or playing one of many instruments – keyboard, guitar, drums, and synthesizer.

He's a really exuberant front man and endless fun to watch, not forgetting the rest of the band who were clearly really enjoying the experience too. The crowd was definitely feeding of the band's energy going wild with flailing arms and bouncing up and down.

The lighting show that went a long with the performance was really something special and at the start of their set when I was in the photo pit, quite a few of us had to turn away as the strobes were actually blinding us! It looked fantastic as a whole though.



Foster spoke a few times during the performance exclaiming the band's joy and thankfulness for being given such a great reception. "It's so good coming to this part of the world; the energy is so invigorating; a lot of people being free!"

The rest of the time the band slayed their way through their album tracks, bouncing about the stage and getting the whole venue dancing. Foster jumped into the crowd and elegantly crowd surfed near the end of his set, which delighted the fans who dutifully delivered him back to the stage.

By the time they finished the set with their anthemic 'Pumped up Kicks' the whole venue was having a good old dance off. When their set finished the crowd broke into a roar of applause and gratitude and the band as a whole couldn't have looked more pleased with themselves.

They deserved it too, as not only did they provide an energetic, passionate and musically talented performance, they also showed that their psychedelic indie-pop tunes are a much needed sound in the market today and I can guarantee we will be seeing more of these guys.

FUTURE GIGS

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