Starting just after midnight, Faith No More performed their second show of the night at the famous Los Angeles club The Troubadour. Earlier in the evening, the band played a five-song set for the studio audience of Jimmy Kimmel Live. Two songs of which–“Sunny Side Up” and “Separation Anxiety”–were broadcast for air on the show.
Following a short and abrasive opening by shock comedian Neil Hamburger, the band played a stunning set highlighted by the performance of every song from their new album Sol Invictus save for “Sunny Side Up.” The band joked numerous times that this was their “Casual Thursday,” as they were only wearing street clothes and not the usual tuxedoes they have adorned in all of their post-reunion shows. Keyboardist Roddy Bottum even happily proclaimed this was their first show in twenty years not wearing suits.
Even though many fans might not be terribly familiar with the new album, the new material shimmered with ferocious poignancy. In particular “Cone of Shame” and “Superhero” were completely outstanding, the former an explosive crescendo growing from sinister desert road twang and the latter the nimble style switches the band has always done better than anyone else. On “Black Friday” the song’s repeated call-out scream of “Buy it” became something of a rallying call for the entire crowd. Each repeated line of the chant had the whole audience roaring along with lead singer Mike Patton.
For those keeping score, “Be Aggressive” is a fan favorite that is seldom played live. Rather than the cheerleader spell-out of the song’s name, here live Bottum fills the role. “Midelife Crisis” followed immediately after–and while a regular staple of their shows–every time it’s played it feels special. When the band finishes the breakdown that leads to the song’s final crescendo, they stop completely letting the audience sing every word of, “You’re perfect yes it’s true / but without me you’re only you / you’re menstruating heart / isn’t bleeding enough for two.” This time, after that interlude they turned the song into a short disco break before returning to the driving finale.
During “Ashes to Ashes” lead singer Patton crowd surfed all the way to the venue’s bar, singing roughly half the song standing on top of the bar.
After that, the group delved into deeper cuts for the encore, including “We Care a Lot,” “As the Worm Turns” and their dead-on Bee Gees cover “I Started a Joke.” “I Started a Joke” is an eye-opening joy to hear the band play live as Patton completely nails the song’s emotive rendering of the final line, “but the joke was on me.”
Set list:
From the Dead
Matador
Motherfucker
Black Friday
Rise of the Fall
Cone of Shame
Separation Anxiety
Superhero
Sol Invictus
Caffeine
Be Aggressive
Midlife Crisis
The Gentle Art of Making Enemies
Ashes to Ashes
Just a Man
Encore
I Started a Joke
We Care a Lot
As the Worm Turns
File Faith No More Photo by Raymond Flotat
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