Photo: wenn
You have to wonder what the first people to come across Fat Freddy’s Drop reckoned. Did the people coming across them at the tail end of the ‘90s playing New Zealand’s clubs and festivals think they’d stumbled across the early stages of a wholly new cocktail of dub, soul, jazz and rhythm and blues, destined to find acclaim far beyond their island home nation? Or did they simply pause to enjoy the musical machinations of another jam band plying their trade?
Either way, it’s hard to imagine any of those early admirers would’ve guessed they’d be selling out consecutive nights at venues the size of Brixton Academy, touring their fourth album. And yet here we are, and watching them fill the gaping south London stage it’s hard to believe the mammoth, audience-conducting beast they’ve become.
Getting proceedings underway with ’Slings And Arrows’, taken from latest album Bays, and ‘Blackbird’. the title track from the preceding album, it’s hard not to be struck by the band’s magnetic character. The musicians wield the collective personality they’ve forged over the last 17 years with immediate effect.
The music is immediately enveloping, rolling over the crowd with oceanic gravitas. The plan for the night, after nearly two decades of honing, is clearly expertly constructed. From the costumes to the layout to the setlist, Fat Freddy’s Drop are masters of their craft. The bounce of ‘Cleaning The House’ quickly catches the fans. The venues heaves and sways. ’10 Feet Tall’, another number taken from Bays, feels like a summation of the band’s stage presence.
Plenty of acts are described as mesmeric or hypnotic. FFD are often pegged as the epitome of it, and there are moments in Brixton where this quality flashes through. At times the musical deviations and extensions throb and twist with a life of its own. Jetlag Johnson’s guitar solos wind their way around the audience brilliantly. At times, they are utterly absorbing.
But there are moments that jar, instances where the mounting instrumentation never quite reaches the apex it seemed destined for, and points where the performance meanders.
The live inclusion of MC Slave is likely to always prove divisive. For some, he’s an ideal counter balance to soft-spoken Joe Dukie, and an excellent energising influence on the audience. For others, he’s a pointless, bombastic addition distracting from the subtleties and nuances of the band.
Trombonist Hopepa’s dash off stage to strip to a pair of remarkably short tennis shorts and don a pair of streaming pink wings is wonderfully entertaining, but perhaps a little lengthy. Inevitably it begins to feel like a distracting tangent interrupting the evening’s ebb and flow.
Early favourite ‘Roady’, drawing an excited reception, seems to lose its way and lack the spark of the snappy composition that’s a highlight of debut Based On A True Story. Likewise ‘Razor’, a track that sizzles and smoulders with immense effect on Bays, never quite gets there on the night. That’s not to say these tracks are badly executed live, but it’s hard not to feel a little disappointed.
But let’s not lose sight of the fact these are the problems of a band at the top of their game. Bands that play for two and a half hours construct stage shows in chapters and phases. One moment the audience is kept enthralled by a spiraling solo, the next there’s a flurry of showmanship given both band and audience respite from the endless movement the music induces.
And in the final third of the performance, when DJ Fitchie ties bass and beats together just right behind the blaring horns and soulfully unfurling vocals, it really is a live experience like no other. Fat Freddy’s Drop straddle the line between being fervently energetic and bewitchingly downtempo. They are at once unassuming and eccentric. They are an easy going jam band, and relentless innovators
And there isn’t another act in the world doing what Fat Freddy’s do.
