The Fiery Furnaces & Fred Armisen @ Brooklyn Steel - Brooklyn, NY
Photos courtesy of Edwina Hay | November 13th 2021
Fred Armisen:
In May 2011, The Fiery Furnaces performed during the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona, Spain, and the group featuring siblings Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger would go on hiatus shortly after that performance. Fast forward to ten years later, they would reform and conduct their first live set in a decade at the Pitchfork Music Festival in September 2021 and go on a brief tour which would take the band to Brooklyn, NY to Brooklyn Steel, Chicago IL’s Thalia Hall, and Los Angeles, CA to El Rey Theatre in mid-November.
Their concert at Brooklyn Steel on Saturday, November 13th began with comedian/musician Fred Armisen starting at 8 PM. He did jokes involving music such as not knowing how to dance or move when listening to songs in unusual time signatures (Slint’s “Nosferatu Man” was used as an example of this), or illustrating the history of punk via the drums starting in the 1970s through 2000s, and demonstrating how it seems like the drummer who played on Diana Ross’ “I’m Coming Out” didn’t know the song he was playing on.
The Fiery Furnaces, now expanded to a six-piece band, took the stage at Brooklyn Steel at 9 PM. Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger were joined by bassist Brian Betancourt, keyboardist Emily Lee, and drummers Noah Hecht and Cameron Wisch. The group performed songs spanning their catalog and executed them in different arrangements than their records. Eleanor thanked the audience for joining them in person for the show while understanding that not everyone who wanted to attend could due to the pandemic. Some fans traveled from out of state to attend the show and they were appreciative of them being there. The evening ended with “Chris Michaels” from their 2004 album Blueberry Boat, with Eleanor throwing her setlist into the crowd after the song was over.
Fiery Furnaces:
