Foals bring out hits for epic Citadel 2017 London headline set

PanARMENIAN.Net - Foals brought out hits, deep cuts and a huge ticker-tape finale for one of their last scheduled UK show of the year with an epic headline set at Citadel Festival on July 16, NME said.

Topping the bill at London’s Victoria Park after stellar sunset shows from Wild Beasts and Bonobo, Foals hit an early peak with the explosive opener of ‘Mountain At My Gates’ into a feral rendition of ‘Snake Oil’. “It’s good to be home,” frontman Yannis Philippakis told the crowd. From there, the band maintained momentum with a high-octane 15 song set that succinctly showcased why they’re one of the few British guitar bands of their generation to reach festival headline status.

While the big singles like ‘My Number’, ‘Late Night’ and the early era outings of ‘Olympic Airwaves’ and ‘Red Socks Pugie’ inspired the liveliest crowd reactions, much reverence was saved for lesser-played favourites like ‘Black Gold’ and ‘Heavy Water’.

“We’ve been trying to play song that have been neglected for a while,” Philippakis told NME ahead of the show, “so we’re playing songs of ‘What Went Down’ that we didn’t get round to playing on last year’s tour and then we called back some old tracks that we haven’t played for a long time so songs like ‘Black Gold’ and ‘Heavy Water’, some of which we haven’t played for over half a decade really and it’s just good to freshen it up and play some deeper tracks of the record. “

The balance of bangers alongside more tender tracks, big hitters and rarities showed all sides of Foals at their finest. The impact of the raucous finale of ‘Inhaler’ before the encore of ‘What Went Down’ and ‘Two Steps Twice’ and the sight of Victoria Park united in dance as ticker tape rained down was the sign of a band shaped by recent arena tours and topping the bill at Reading & Leeds, NME said.