Every once in a long great while there comes along an opening act that blows the doors off the fuckin cosmos and rocks your worlds in ways you couldn’t have possibly comprehended before said band took stage. Last night, Francis and the Lights saved my life.
Powered by two percussionists, propelled with a smooth rhythm guitar and bass and smooved the fuck out with two jazzy looking cats on synth duties, the Lights could be the best backing band in the world; hammering out soft ‘n’ silky tunes for frontman Francis to do his nerdy James Brown thing while he spurts out Princely falsettos and Phil Collins grunts.
Of course this MOR juggernaut was the last thing I expected to open for spazzy post-hardcore superdudes, Les Savy Fav. But after Francis’ first luscious hip thrust I was in heaven, by the time he reached the climax of his epic bedroom ballad “Strawberries” he had the whole audience asexually swinging their shoulders in time. But seriously how could you say no to these moves?
And the best news is, is that if that didn’t convince you, you can download his albums and sample all of his sings FREE from the band’s website here.
-Charles