Live Review: Super Furry Animals at 9:30 Club [1.27.08]

It’s been ten long years since the first time I had the pleasure of catching a live Super Furry Animals gig, as they played the old Black Cat on their American tour for the Radiator album. The times and venues they have a-changed, but one thing remains certain: the Super Furries know how to show a gal a good time.

A packed house at the 9:30 Club awaits the spacey Welsh quintet as they take the stage, singer Gruff Rhys and keyboardist extraordinaire Cian Ciaran wearing suits that immediately make me think of Flying Burrito Brothers album covers; loose-flowing and covered in kooky floral embroidery. It’s a big change from the Yeti costumes of yore, but definitely a change for the better. The band launches into “Gateway Song,” the opening track off latest release Hey Venus! My favorite track from the new album, “Run Away,” follows, and sounds just as delightfully bittersweet in the flesh. A trio of older favorites (“Golden Retriever,” “Do Or Die,” and “She’s Got Spies”) elicits gleeful squeals from the crowd, and all three joyfully resonate around the heaving club.


For those of you who haven’t yet seen the Furries, they’re not just sonically sweet, but Gruff Rhys also keeps you entertained with his between-song banter. When introducing Welsh song “Torra Fy Ngwallt Yn Hir,” he quips that the easiest way to remember the name was to think of “terrible mountaineer,” since they sound similar. A friend of the Furries takes the stage to play the scissors solo (yes, scissors solo), and Gruff hailed his performance as the “best scissors solo I’ve ever heard.” More Gruff-ness comes before “The Gift that Keeps Giving,” which Mr. Rhys calls one of their power ballads.

A moment that could only happen at a Super Furry Animals gig comes halfway through the set; guitarist Huw “Bunf” Bunford has written a new song, “Earth,” which requires audience participation to make it work. What does this participation entail? Simply putting both hands next to your head in a way that makes me think of Bullwinkle the moose, while the band drones for about ten seconds. It is, after all, quite possible the “shortest song ever written,” according to Huw.


After the new comes the old (by comparison) and saucy “Juxtapozed With U,” from the Rings Around the World album. “Into the Night” follows, fulfilling the “European metal” section of the set, according to Gruff. The excellent “Show Your Hand” is next, and is a fine example of the “power ballad about gambling” genre. Naturally. If you haven’t got it yet, SFA are the masters of wackiness, the undisputed heavyweight champions of charming idiosyncrasies. To illustrate, on “Receptacle for the Respectable,” the celery chewing that on record was performed by Sir Paul McCartney is done by Mr. Gruff Rhys. But the point is, celery chewing? Of course.


The Furries leave the stage at the end of “Receptacle for the Respectable,” but don’t keep us waiting long for more. It is during their absence that I notice the pair of blindingly orange, no doubt 1970s vintage monster amps on the stage. And they make perfect sense. “Slow Life” is the first of eight encore songs, and it makes me think back to the days when the band used to begin their set with that bleeping, schizophrenic glorious mess of a song. “Clusterfuck” is used as a verb, which always makes me smile. The band reaches into their goodie bag of b-sides with the always enjoyable “Calimero,” the song about a chicken. Yes, a chicken. One of my favorites, “The Man Don’t Give a Fuck,” is included in the encore, and it is as ever loud and obnoxious and wonderful. I believe it is the most profane song yet written, in terms of “fuck.” Another very Furry move occurs when “Earth” is played again, and once more the entire venue performs the obligatory hand gesture, everyone of us looking ridiculous. The set comes to an end with “Keep the Cosmic Trigger Happy,” in which Gruff and Huw parade around the stage with signs that say “Happy New Year” in English and Welsh, and then Gruff turns his over the reveal “The Ende.” Oh, and while this is going on he wears a red Power Rangers helmet. How else would he do it?

Another Super Furry Animals show, another hour and a half spent in a state of complete far-outness. They are a band like no other, and I do so enjoy spending time on their planet.


[Words by Megan Petty]
[Photos by Laura O'Neill]