And your ears shall hear…

For their first time touring through the States, The xx didn’t fair too bad.  They had some good reaction from the crowd, and for being the opening act, seem to have brought out a lot of fans.  But they never got past that whispered sound  that is heard on their debut LP.  The xx are a very mellow band, and they did nothing exxtra to step up their live show.  They sounded good, but it was hard to watch after 15 minutes, unless maybe you had a couch to get comfortable on.  You get the picture, they basically lulled us to sleep.  Then the Friendly Fires took the stage, and lit a fire under all of our collective asses!  As if to say, “Wake the f–k up!”  Their stage presence was frenetic, they made you want to dance, and that’s what most of the crowd was doing.  Swinging from side to side, hands in the air, we couldn’t stop moving!  The Fires’ burned through the majority of their self-titled record, heating things up with  “Lovesick.” They sparked the crowd with “Jump In The Pool,”  and gave us a fever with their beautiful live version of “Paris,” causing us to conjure images of lovers, gazing at the stars (as bad as that sounds).  The sleeper of the night though  had to be “Photobooth.”  I have heard many different mixes, and liked the original, but live, this song killed, as it was very funky and stepped up the party a notch.  They pretty much played everything they have out, save for a song or two.  I was so pumped when I left that I had to go out and buy the 2-Disc remix edition the next day.  To be honest, I was very shocked!  I thought they would be good, but they blew away all expectations, putting on one of the top shows of 2009.