Mehan Jayasuriya

Earlier this summer, The Fiery Furnaces played a show at the Metro, previewing material from its second full-length "Blueberry Boat." Since the release of the album, the band has been buried under a veritable avalanche of word-of-mouth hype. However, the upcoming show takes place at the significantly smaller Empty Bottle. Why the change of venue? "I'm a White Sox fan," explains multi-instrumentalist Matt Friedberger. "I don't want to play in Wrigleyville."

Originally hailing from Oak Park, the duo, consisting of brother and sister Eleanor and Matt Friedberger, relocated to Brooklyn in 2001 to make music in earnest. While their debut "Gallowbird's Bark" was a generally well-received slice of bluesy rock, it wasn't until this year that the band really started to gain national notoriety. As they readily admit, "Blueberry Boat" is an homage to the rock operas of the Who, although that never prevents the record from being inventive, clever or original on its own terms. Musically, their approach is markedly different from The Who's Pete Townshend's, often substituting keyboards and electronics for guitars. However, the spirit is the same; epic songs that encapsulate self-contained narratives and erratic songwriting that vacillates in accordance with the stories being told.

Surprisingly, the band manages to bring this same fickle spirit to its live show, playing "bits of songs" as opposed to album versions. "We take bits of one song and stick it on another," explains Friedberger. "It lets us re-imagine the songs." Songs are often truncated, sped-up and played back-to-back, resulting in an unpredictable and often manic live show. "It's an excuse to be a different band live than you are on record," Friedberger clarifies. "You do whatever you think is amusing."

The intimate confines of the Empty Bottle should allow the Furnaces' energy to easily infect the audience while providing an opportunity to see what might be the last small club tour of a band seemingly headed for bigger things. Will they ever return to that other venue in town? "I never had fun going there," claims Friedberger. He might just be a little biased.

The Fiery Furnaces play September 17 at the Empty Bottle.

(2004-09-14)

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