Photos by Steve Carlson // Written by Molly Kish //
FOALS with Bear Hands, Kiev //
Fox Theater Oakland – Oakland
September 26th, 2016 //
English indie-rock giants FOALS kicked off the California leg of their 2016 tour with a sold-out show at the Fox Theater Oakland last Monday night. As the first of only two tour stops in The Golden State with support from Brooklyn’s Bear Hands and Orange County’s Kiev, the Oxford five-piece electrified the audience by running through a hard-hitting set of material from each of its four studio albums.
Highly anticipated, the show marked the first time FOALS have returned to the Bay Area since their powerhouse performance at Outside Lands (read our review here) back in August. One of the most notable sets over the festival’s three days, Bay Area fans welcomed the extremely talented outfit back with open arms and exuded the energy typically of a capacity crowd on a weekend night at The Fox.
Lead singer/guitarist Yannis Philippakis relished in excitement as he performed his signature stage dives that resulted in crowd surfing as well as vocal gymnastics. The band held nothing back, feeding off the crowd’s emotion with some inspired playing.
Following their Bay Area stop, FOALS headed down south for the second of their two California dates, playing the Hollywood Palladium with plenty of gusto (read our review here). We can’t wait for their return as they continue to climb even higher with each new album they release.
Setlist:
Prelude
Snake Oil
Olympic Airways
My Number
Providence
Give It All
Mountain at My Gates
Spanish Sahara
Red Socks Pugie
Late Night
A Knife in the Ocean
Inhaler
Encore:
What Went Down
Two Steps, Twice
[…] But when UK rockers FOALS come into town, things change. Bros get stoked, beers get drunk and fans get pumped. This exact course of events went down last Tuesday at the Hollywood Palladium for the band’s return to Los Angeles after a raucous performance in Oakland the night before (see our photos from the show here). […]