Show Review: French Kicks @ Johnny Brenda’s 2/12/09
We’ve waited quite some time to see one of our top groups from 2008 show up in Philly. At Johnny Brenda’s this past Thursday we were treated to one big surprise by Gildon Works and a performance we had been anticipating for quite some time following French Kick’s Swimming album dropping this past year.
Gildon Works
The big surprise was the first act, Gildon Works, the Philly band from “fishtown” comprised of Gerard Angelini, Dave Moylan, Chris Wilson, Cody Ferdinand, Josh Cicetti and Stacy Shevlin. The group, who describe themselves as Hawaiian / Jungle / Powerpop, were packed six-deep on stage and brought quite a bit of emotion with their jangly guitars and supersonic breakdowns.
The group’s chemistry mixed well with their style. Three guitars made up the forefront, keyboards, percussions and drums made up the other three. The guitar melodies themselves brought the band onto a new plane; their riffs remniscent of electro-engineered bands such as Radiohead, and GW’s professionalism was astounding with their instrumental experimentalism extending their song endings as much as a minute or two with such gusto. More notable was the strong impact the basslines had on each song, something underplayed by many groups, yet one of Gildon Works most powerful plays in their performance.
After a quite pleasing and unexpected stellar performance, Gildon Works seems ready for bigger things. Their MySpace page says “New record in the works”, but we strongly suggest picking up Artful Rifle and check these guys out if you see them coming your way. The night was late already, but Gildon Works were an early favorite.
MP3: Gildon Works – Sight Unseen (buy)
Buy Artful Rifle on iTunes.
Ferraby Lionheart
Lead vocalist, Ferraby, led the self-labeled folk band Ferraby Lionheart into a more relaxing, soothing set. There were hints of certain groups we like, such as Air Traffic (without the rock) with their slower songs and singer-songwriting talents by Ferraby himself. Much of the set was more down-tempo than anything with many slow songs swinging from an acoustic-backed ballad to a keyboard driven song.
What made more of an appealing set was their keyboardist / xylophonist (shown on the left in picture below). The keyboards had tweaks of ambience, which added an unusually welcomed appeal to FL’s set. The xylophone fit right into their set as well, with many songs of the gleeful type ranging from songs about girls in “Dear Corinne” and “Small Planet“.
Ferraby was more of the story-telling type of band. Looking to a band such as French Kicks, whose harmonics are their strong points made a tough switch to focus solely on songs mainly driven by a single lead singer sans the shimmering guitars we love so much. Albeit our differences in music tastes, Ferraby proved to have a well performed set and has a handful of songs that are surely a hit with the well-stacked crowd who came to see them.
MP3: Ferraby Lionheart – Small Planet (buy)
French Kicks
French Kicks, the band from Brooklyn, who are known for their modular melodies and gleaming guitar pedals took stage around 12 AM. The already late set had most who had came to see them heavily anticipating how they make their unorthodox sound into a live show. The brunt of the action was taken care of by the talented tall Nick Stumpf taking lead vocals and guitar. The group themselves set three wide on guitars and drums.
As expected in their live performance, the subtleties were their strong points – songs such as “Abandon“, “New Man” or “Said So What“, which had been criticized for being to subtle for their own good were clearly fan favorites as the night went on. Whether it was the bands intention or not, problems with their amp flared up at the end of the show, which made the members switch from bass to lead-guitar alternately between songs. The appeal of their set was not only the diversity between the guitars and their matching vocals, but the versatility of the guitar pedals they used.
Josh Wise (above) took the lead on a few songs. More songs that crept up and became so likable throughout the show were “All Our Weekends” and one of my recent favorites “Love In The Ruins“. Wise truly had a big impact on the performance, showing the band had a strong duality in vocals and guitar.
The band’s 2008 album, Swimming, was played for the most part, but a few tracks were played from their 2006 album Two Thousand, such as “So Far We Are“. These guys were definitely worth taking the trip to “fishtown” in Philadelphia.
MP3: French Kicks – Love In The Ruins (buy)
Buy Swimming on iTunes
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Great songs!
Just a note, the lead singer of the French Kicks is Nick Stumpf. Matt Stinchcomb left the band in 2005.
Thanks for the note! Its hard finding matching pictures with names for certain groups. I was working off of limited information, but I’m glad it could be corrected.