show report - Young Man / Fanfarlo

Last night -- Fanfarlo and Young Man at U St. Music Hall in D.C. I hadn't actually heard of Young Man before. They're a Chicago-based band who as I understand it is mostly the project of lead singer, Colin Caulfield. And it's his voice that pulls together Young Man's overall flowing, bright sound. That voice is kind of reminiscent of Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend, only much more mellow. It's a good sound. Listen to "Fate," the first single off their forthcoming album Vol. 1 here:
Young Man - Fate by orchardmktg
Young Man's Vol. 1 is due May 22.

Fanfarlo got on stage and started off with a 20-minute sound check -- they broke down 50 miles from the District on the road from NYC, lost a lot of time and had to sound-check after Young Man's set. At least it was interesting enough just watching them go through their multitude of instruments. Electric violin, saxophone, trumpet, synths, drum pad, etc. Plus the usual guitars and vocal mics and the like. But no one actually cared about waiting around through the sound check because Fanfarlo's sound is ridiculously likable. And they did a great show.

If you've never heard Fanfarlo, imagine something like Arcade Fire crossed with Beirut. Or you could just listen to these: "Harold T. Wilkins, or How to Wait for a Very Long Time" from their 2009 debut Reservoir:


and "Shiny Things," from their second album Rooms Filled with Light, the album just came out last week:


About halfway through their set I noticed lead singer (and variously instrumented) Simon Balthazar was wearing pretty strange pants. The type you might describe as swashbuckling, or something. Unfortunately you can't tell from my awful iPhone picture:

This is the most clear of my phone photos from last night. Sad.