The last time I saw FP was during their Santa's BF incarnation- and who knew they could get even better than they were back then!
The band took the stage at the Hatch Shell in Boston on Saturday to open Riverfest, a radio sponsored outdoor concert which also featured the likes of Rhett Miller and Ben Folds.
They started out high energy with "Everything will Never Be OK", followed by "Cigarette". There was a moderate sized crowd despite the threat of rain, and although most of them had no idea who Fiction Plane was, they were soon swept up in the energy of the band. The band took it down a notch with an interesting, slow , kind of swirly acoustic version of "Hate", with Seton on acoustic guitar. It sounded so cool, but very different from the cd version, and quite short. As the song ended, I remember thinking it was kind of strange that they didn't do the long version of "Hate", like they did on Craig Kilborn, since this is supposed to be their first single. Then Seton put away his acoustic guitar, grabbed the electric, and the band kicked into an absolutely blistering version of "Hate"- really awesome!!!! Later I asked Joe about the acoustic prelude, and he said they had also recorded a full acoustic version of Hate- hopefully we'll get to hear this on their next cd! ( or maybe as a bonus disc sent out to FP fans - are you listening?)
"Listen to My Babe" was next, a real rocker, and the crowd was loving it! It started to lightly rain at this point, so Dan took a moment to throw some plastic rain ponchos out to the crowd!
There was another song I didn't recognize, with lyrics along the lines of "this is mylife, i belong here'. It sounded great!!! When I asked Joe about it, he said this was a new song, called "Four O'Clock", also hopefully slated for their next cd. It's great to know that they didn't use up all their good songs on their debut cd, like so many other bands, and that we've got more great stuff to look forward to from them.
The band ended their set with "Real Real" , and geez, this is so embarassing, I am totally blocked on the song they closed with, but I remember it was a great ending to a great show- and as I looked around at the crowd, it was obvious that they'd picked up quite a few new fans. As the band started to move their gear off the stage, Dan came down to the crowd barrier and continued to throw out more rain ponchos, and Pete tossed his drumsticks out to the crowd. (Well , he tossed one drumstick, the other one was snatched up by the announcer!)
After their set, the guys (without Pete), signed cd's ( and a lot of other things) at the virgin records booth- there was a long, long line of people who waited in one line to buy the cd ( for $10), and then waited in another long line to get their cd's signed. It was mostly a high school/college aged crowd, but there were people of all ages there, from little kids to older adults who had experienced the first British Invasion nearly 40 years ago! The signing wasn't rushed - the guys took their time chatting with fans, signing, and posing for photos. In fact, for a band that says they prefer playing live to doing cheesy PR photo ops , they were remarkably good natured and happily posed for photos with anyone who asked. The guys signed sneakers, riverfest posters, cds, jackets, sweatshirts, and even some FP t-shirts which people were wearing. One guy had nothing for them to sign but a wrinked piece of paper- after Joe signed it, he flipped it over to find he was signing the back of a $50 receipt!
If you have a chance to see these guys live, DO IT!! This band really knows how to play LIVE!
Dan throws rain ponchos out to the audience \
Joe, Dan, and Seton will sign just about anything!
....and on to the next gig!
Seton on acoustic
