It had been a long time coming and Yannis Philippakis knew it. One pandemic and two cancelled tours later, Foals were finally able to take to the Millennium Square stage on Friday night to kick off Leeds’ Sounds of the City run, which finally sees live music return to the open air stage in the middle of Leeds.
‘It’s good to be back,’ was something of an understatement from the Foals frontman after his band arrived on stage on a perfect summer evening, with Yannis and company getting straight out of the blocks.
Pints were immediately thrown in the air and a mosh pit formed as the Leeds crowd got it on from the very first bars of opener Wake Me Up, the first song of a set teeming with anthemic singalongs.
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Foals are now seven albums and 17 years into a career which has seen top the charts, win countless awards and earlier this summer headline Glastonbury’s Other Stage. This all means their live act can boast of set that features almost no filler, with favourites from each of their albums sitting alongside each other to remind fans just how much their sound has evolved and been honed over this period.
A powerful rendition of Mountain at My Gates is an early highlight, while the likes of 2am and 2001 from their latest album Life Is Yours seem tailor-made to be sung outdoors in front of a crowd that has been drenched in sun all day.
With the midsummer half-moon hanging over the stage as dusk turned to darkness and adding to this perfect setting, Yannis was quick to take in the surroundings, telling the crowd they were ‘beautiful to watch’ and admiring the Civic Hall situated opposited. He also clocked onto the fans lucky enough to be watching from the balconies situated above Millennium Square’s Wetherspoons, offering an apology for some of his more industrial language when he spotted some children joining in the Friday night fun.
The hits would keep on coming, with My Number, Foals’s most well-known song to date getting a massive reaction from the crowd. While hits like this sound huge on record, the band are able to add to this in a live setting, adding layers and stringing out the climaxes to their more anthemic numbers to rev up the crowd and take these songs to dizzying new highs.
One example of this was In Degrees, which had an extra electronic dimension added to give the 2019 hit a New Order vibe and ended with the kind of chest-shaking bass that the majority of this crowd has not felt in a setting like this since the pre-pandemic days.
Spanish Sahara saw another mass singalong, with fans popping up on each other’s shoulders for the emotional centrepiece of the set. There was little time to drink this in though, as Yannis immediately promised a run of ‘facemelters’ to close out proceedings. Providence followed by Inhaler, another favourite from their 2013 album Holy Fire, to close their set to rapturous applause.
A three-song encore included a huge, building rendition of What Went Down, which saw drummer Jack Bevan break off and head into the crowd, dolling out his drumsticks to some lucky fans before restocking himself and finishing off the song.
The placing of the stage meant that frontman Yannis was unable to do his usual trick of finding something to climb up onto, but his enthusiasm at being back on an outdoor stage in front of thousands of loyal fans was infectious, with the tranditional set closer Two Steps, Twice sending the delighted Leeds crowd out into the balmy Friday night.
Live music is back in Millennium Square and there aren’t many contemporary acts that can match Foals’ polished, powerful and exhilarating act, as they delivered a set that was a fitting way to kick off this summer of sound.
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Setlist
- Wake Me Up
- Mountain at My Gates
- The Runner
- 2am
- Olympic Airways
- My Number
- Black Gold
- Life Is Yours
- In Degrees
- 2001
- Spanish Sahara
- Inhaler
Encore
- Black Bull
- What Went Down
- Two Steps, Twice
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