Les Savy Fav are refreshingly free from the achingly hip angular haircuts and cool indifference so ubiquitous today. With their paunches on display and refusal to conform to any sense of studied cool rock poses, the band put in a blistering performance at BAM as part of this year’s Sounds Like Brooklyn festival – the show itself was sheer celebration, an almost carnivalesque miasma of flamboyancy and ferocious punk rock.
The easiest thing to do when writing a review about Les Savy Fav is to focus on the onstage antics of mainman Tim Harrington, especially when he spends the entire gig dressed in red spandex, sporadically deciding to wander around the audience and out the door of BAM while offering marginally early New Year countdowns…for 2011.
However, the lynchpin of the band’s relentlessly driving post-punk sound is bassist Syd Butler, whose muscular, roving basslines underpin Harrington’s vocal theatrics and the dual guitar assualt from Seth Jabour and Andrew Reuland. Add in Harrison Haynes’ crips, precise drumming and you’ve got one hell of an outfit.
Irrespective of the band’s influences, they do not hark back to any specific era. By virtue of their refusal to adhere to any seasonal trends, the band offer a constant commentary on the art of celebration – the entire set was joyous, riotous and downright tremendous fun. No posing, no nonchalant indifference. Les Savy Fav are pure, unadulterated rock n’ roll.
