Review: Foals live at Olympia

Indie rocks finest play a set filled with their greatest hits and welcome a new ear for the band.

It's been a long time coming for Foals to kickstart their UK tour. Well over two years since I booked the tickets for the gig at Londons Olympia. The band have gone from supporting the double album release of 'Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost', to now supporting their upcoming album 'Life Is Yours' and with the departure of Bassist, Edwin Congreave, this was certainly the start of a new era for the band.

The band kicked this off with one of their latest singles 'Wake Me Up' which gave the gig the party feel which Foals are aiming for in their new record. With its catchy lyrics, infectious guitar work from lead guitarist and lead singer Yannis Philippakis alongside some beautiful visuals on the screen behind the band, it set foals off to the perfect start for the concert.

What you instantly realise with Foals when you see them live is how many hits they have had in their illustrious career to date. Songs from their more recent albums such as 'The Runner' and 'In Degrees' to their much older songs such as 'My Number' and 'Mountain At My Gates' have all gone down as indie hits in the past and the band had no shame in dipping into each album from their career and displaying their very best to the London crowd.

Foals were not shy in showing the fans what they have in store with their new album. '2am', 'Looking High' and the unreleased '2001' all got on the setlist as well. Best of all, the songs did not feel out of place and still had the same Foals sound but it can be said that the songs did have a more dance feel to the rest of the set. Either way, the new songs gave Foals set a breath of fresh air as a new album dawns.

It has to be said that Yannis was on top form on that night as well. "It's a bank holiday. Are you fucking up for it?" Yannis Asked to the London crowd and they cheered back to him. Yannis knows how to work up a crowd and he can do it in two ways. One is by getting the crowd hyped up by asking if they are up for it as previously said. The other is from having big build-ups in the songs in which he goes into the crowd and joins his adoring fans then delivering a satisfying drop which will get everyone off their feet and moshing. One great example of this would be 'Inhaler' which Yannis does all of this and gets in the crowd all hyped up while Drummer Jack Bevan supplies the beat to send the crowd into a frenzy.

The visuals of the show were nothing more than stunning with multiple screens used and lights in the background. Each song was accompanied by some visuals which felt a perfect fit for every song. 'Mounting at My Gates' was accompanied by visuals which fans of the music video would be familiar with. While on the earlier talked about drop for 'Inhaler', the screen would be lit up with bright vibrant colours which just looked stunning and it was hard to keep your eyes off the main stage. 'Spanish Sahara' was one of the much slower songs of the night and this was accompanied by a beautiful blue background which just set the mood perfectly for the song.

You would think that Foals would have run out of energy by the end of their set but instead their most energetic part of the show was the end. Ending their set with Foals' very best. 'Providence', 'Inhaler', 'Black Bull', 'What Went Down' and 'Two Steps, Twice. This was Foals at their very best and the crowd responded with more and more people getting off their feet and the moshpits only getting wider and wider. This was a great way for the band to end their set and leave a London crowd very happy.

The main question I had going into this gig is that would it be worth the over two years of waiting. Simply, yes it was definitely worth the wait. It allowed Foals to be able to create some new songs which sound great live and also allowed them to create their most visually stunning gig to date. Foals once again proved that night why they are one of Britain's best live bands and why they play these sorts of arenas.