1 December – Just one show this month, Fleet Foxes at the O2 Academy, Leeds.
The last time I saw them here in June 2009 the experience was, at best, poor. The band played well enough but the audience were awful, noisy and seemingly not wanting to listen. As a result I couldn’t persuade the GLW, who is an enormous Fleet Foxes fan, to accompany me this time. Of course I constantly expect hope to triumph over experience. I’m not disappointed. I think I’ve learned a key lesson in going to the Leeds Academy – stand well clear of the bars.
Tonight the band is excellent, performing a well-judged mix of songs from their début album and the (relatively) new Helplessness Blues, with 11 of its 12 tracks getting an airing. There are also 2 songs from the Giant Sun EP. Robin Pecknold performs the first two songs of the encore solo and this may well be a sign of what’s coming next.
They do need to see a stylist about that facial hair though.
Setlist: The Plains / Bitter Dancer; Mykonos; English House; Battery Kinzie; Bedouin Dress; Sim Sala Bim; Your Protector; White Winter Hymnal; Ragged Wood; Montezuma; He Doesn’t Know Why; Lorelai; The Shrine / An Argument; Blue Spotted Tail; Grown Ocean
Encore: Someone You’d Admire; Tiger Mountain Peasant Song; Sun It Rises; Blue Ridge Mountains; Helplessness Blues
Posted by Stephen Towler 
The More You Ignore Me 