Fleet Foxes kicked off a sprawling spring tour by packing The Ritz in Ybor City, Florida to capacity, and while some in the big crowd couldn't keep their mouths sit, the Seattle indie-pop outfit was bold enough to overcome and deliver an epic, 20-song set for fans thrilled about the group's Tampa debut. Here's an excerpt from our review:
Over the course of 20 songs, Pecknold — flanked by Skjelset plus multi-instrumentalists Morgan Henderson, Casey Wescott and Christian Wargo — revisited old material and beautifully brought Crack-Up to life during a shimmery, nearly-two-hour set. Solo takes on “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” and “Oliver James” — each a decade old — undressed Pecknold’s sterling vocal, and Morgan stayed busy switching seamlessly between his arsenal of instruments which included flute, zills, tambourine, and baritone. Wescott flashed the mandolin a few times and let it shine on a spin through Helplessness Blues highlight “Grown Ocean” where each passing minute found the Foxes’ harmonies growing warmer with every verse before they all finally culminated in the song’s bare-bones acapella outro.
Read the rest of the review — and see photos from the show — here. Listen to a playlist featuring songs from the set below.
This article appears in Mar 1-8, 2018.