Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Review: Fitz and the Tantrums w/ Henry and the Nightcrawlers @ Venue

A decent opener to an outright fantastic evening at Venue on monday night; Henry and the Nightcrawlers, a native Vancouver band, came out slow, but gradually pumped out catchier beats as the night progressed. Formerly one of the original band members for Lotus Child (now The Zolas), Tom Dobrzanski killed with the keyboard and definitely stood out from the rest of the band. On guitar and lead vocals was Henry Alcock-White. On one hand he could pitch out some unique guitar solos, which unfortunately did not mesh at all with his vocals. Maybe they don’t perform as well on a live stage, but one thing is for sure that they lacked a lot of chemistry and the energy needed to pump up the crowd. I think I spent more time watching them dance awkwardly than I spent rocking out to their music.





With a strange inspiration coming from the rocky islands of Ireland, they did however manage to release a couple good songs, with one in particular:

Henry and the Nightcrawlers - Back Upon The Rocky Island

The crowd was a little quiet after the opener, but Fitz and the Tantrums

quickly sparked up the crowd right from the start. If you liked this band before the concert, you would have fallen in love with the brilliant soul-filled acts of lead singer Michael Fitzpatrick and the sexy Noelle Scaggs. Singing most of their songs from their album, Picking Up The Pieces (2010), The classly dressed Fitz, in his salmon pink suit, managed to electrify the crowd with every move he made, probably making him the best stage performer I've ever seen. Hardly a back-up singer, Scaggs voice filled the room the room with her voice and very effortlessly got the entire crowd dancing. Together, this duo was not lacking in any chemistry whatsoever, at one point getting so close that they looked like they were lost in each others eyes.

Backing the performance up, James King blew the house out playing two saxophones at once at one point, later playing a flute as well. Hardly a selfish group of people, drummer, John Wicks and keyboardist, Jeremy Ruzumna both had beautiful solos, with Fitzpatrick hilariously attempting to steal the spotlight. Together with Ethan Philips on bass guitar, these six members managed to fill up Venue with what sounded like at least a ten piece band. Finishing their main set list with an outstanding drum solo, Fitz and the Tantrums managed to outdo even that performance with their encore of a cover of Sweet Dreams and their hit song, Money Grabber. Overall, an amazing show for their first time in Vancouver, which has unfortunately left me with very high expectations of future concerts I attend.

If you havent heard of any of their songs, check these out!


Fitz and the Tantrums - Dont Gotta Work It Out


Fitz and the Tantrums - Rich Girls


Fitz and the Tantrums - L.O.V.


On a side note: Another concert review coming on saturday after Guilty About Girl's performance at Venue this friday. If you're going, let me know!
Also, thanks for reading my first concert review. Leave some feedback on stuff i should do to make it better. I'm also hoping to find a few people to send in some concert reviews to add to this blog so if you're interested in writing, leave me a message.

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