Saturday was full of unexpected twists and turns. I totally forgot Super Furry Animals were in town until the previous evening, after all my contacts at Metro or the label had long gone home. I hadn't seen the band since the awesome show they did at The Abbey a few years ago -- when they brought in their own custom soundsystem -- so I was feeling a little overdue for some Super Furry Love. Love Kraft made it into my top 10 list last year (the full version of which has YET to be finished for donewaiting!) and I just wrote a glowing review for Neon Neon, so lately Gruff Rhys has been occupying more of my head-space than usual.
Well, as fate would have it, my friend Danielle was able to hook me up with a ticket to the show and the 150 person afterparty that Rhys would be DJing. Color me incredibly lucky, huh? So we got there in time to catch part of Times New Viking, who turned in a reasonably shambolic indie-'90s set. It wasn't bad, but they seemed like a bit of an off pairing with SFA. I did meet a bunch of their friends and the girl from the band (quoth her friend: "It certainly helps to have a hot and sassy lady in a band, huh?") between sets when I snuck out for a smoke.Super Furry Animals came on and turned in an hour and a half set of music filled with just about every song I could possibly want to hear. The Abbey show still stands out as the slightly more intense experience due to it's use of sound and visuals; who could forget the loop of that sun-kissed golden retriever that played behind them at that show? As far as solid hardcore fan-pleasing goes, though, Saturday's show hit all the right buttons.
The afterparty was enjoyable. While I was there Phys stuck with spinning a bunch of psych rock while I attacked the pile of free pizzas and free beer. Man, Metro should get someone to sponsor free pizza after every show, since all that bread and grease cut through the booze to give me a second wind. After a while I forced Danielle -- quite possibly the biggest SFA fan I have ever met -- to pose for a picture with Rhys while he was DJing. I couldn't see the viewer on her camera, so I was shooting blind, but luckily it came out O.K. See, doesn't she look absotively stoked?
So thanks to Danielle for getting me in, thanks to Metro for the hospitality (as usual), thanks to the cute friend of Times New Viking for amusing me between sets, and, most importantly, thanks to Super Furry Animals for being that rare breed of band that actually, impossibly, remains and intensely terrific live act while getting better and better with each record they put out.
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