100 Shows of 2010 - #51: Beach Fossils @ Black Cat, 8/8/10

Ok, I know I have the tendency to get a little excited about some of these here shows I go to. But my level of anticipation for Beach Fossils was off the charts. After all, their amazing, incredible, glorious self-titled record is easily one of the best LPs of this here annum, and I was pretty sure that their live show would also be pretty dang good. And I tell you what, lights of my life, when you bring together a standing, dancing drummer, a sailor (or perhaps pilot) hat, and a baby pink guitar, the end result can be nothing but good times. No lie. I have Beach Fossils’ Black Cat show as proof.

MINI RECAP: Beach Fossils = Sunshinily Sensational! Overall score: A.

I’m tempted to go as far as calling them the best of the year thus far, but I’ll stop just short of that for fear of being too hasty and say without question Beach Fossils put on one of the top 5 sets I’ve been privy to so far in 2010. These dudes are awesome beyond their years, and the way they come together on a stage is truly a splendid thing to behold. Starting off with album opener “Sometimes”, the band began to work their magic, casting a golden web of noise dreamily across the room. They immediately proved even better live than on record, and that in itself is a feat. I probably would have been sated after just one song, but happily the band kept going. “Vacation” was next, sounding ever so slightly unhinged, as if perhaps there was a slight danger of the band veering off the rails at any minute. “You people need to move around more,” the band urged, and several of the persons near the stage obliged, though none got down quite as much as that sassy drummer.

“Lazy Day”, one of the exquisitely summer-perfect Beach Fossils songs, languidly jangling along and leaving the memorable summer slacker mantra “lazy today/lazy tonight/and later on” behind. The perfection continued with “Golden Age”, fuzzy and fun and straight up fantastic. As they stormed through “Youth”, I closed my eyes and imagined the whole shebang transplanted to someone’s backyard, lit by a thousand Christmas lights and dancing under an inky summer sky. It was a breathtaking moment in a set pretty much full of them.

They closed with my favorite two songs from the record, “Daydream” and “Twelve Roses”. The smile I had been wearing most of the night got a whole lot bigger as the band sharply but sweetly strummed and shimmied their way through two of the best damn songs you’ll hear back to back. It was just one of those sets, those rare and special times when the band is at their best. And I feel like the cat who got all the goddam canaries for having been there to see it.

As my friend Carolyn noted, Beach Fossils is truly great 99 degree music. I’d say there’s really none better.

mp3: Twelve Roses (Beach Fossils from Beach Fossils)