I wanted to comment on this concert before I completely forgot about it (though I realize I'm doing this for virtually no one but myself).
I saw The Fiery Furnaces again last month (April 23 in SLC), and it was amazing. The opening band, Dios (or Dios Malos as they are now seemingly called) was extremely good. I'd like to pick their album up if I can find it sometime. Now to the headliner, the FF's performance/setlist was completely different from how it was done a year previous. This time, they did most of the show in different huge medley segments. For example, their first "song" was a medley of a huge amount of their songs that lasted a whopping 35 minutes before they took a break!!! They would mix in choruses and verses of certain songs, then move into other songs, then back to the original, then sing a chorus of one song, then do half of another song, then do most all of one song, then sing a few lines from one song, then immediately go into another song. Many of these versions of the songs sounded nothing like the music in the original recorded versions, but still worked so well. The amazing thing was that it was in no way chaotic, every segue into another song was completly planned and performed with absolute precision.
They then played a few songs all the way through but still in medley form, including some brand new songs (not surprising considering they supposedly have 2 to 3 albums of material they've been working on, including an album with their grandmother which Eleanor even hinted at jokingly). Then the drummer and bassist/keyboard player left the stage for a few songs and then the bro/sis combo of Eleanor and Matt Friedberg played/sang a few songs acoustically or with just one piano. They threw in a new one in here too, which I remember really liking. The rest of the band came back out and they took some requests and played a few other songs to finish the show up.
I was standing front and center for the whole show, about 5 feet from the stage. Everyone around me was having a great time and dancing and rocking out (after one song, our section was congratulated on our awesome dancing by Eleanor). I felt proud of myself for knowing a good deal of lyrics during the show, especially since most of the songs were played in such a strange manner. I remember having a very strange/surreal moment where I was singing along to one of the songs (while pumping a fist in the air) and I noticed Eleanor was staring right at me as she sang (probably surprised someone was actually singing along)
I was highly entertained by the show, and highly impressed by how they pulled off those huge medleys. They performed the vast majority of their songs, however briefly, at the show. I was highly entertained by their drummer, who was going insane the whole time. I noticed he (and the rest of the band) was highly entertained by a guy standing in front of me who was dancing in hands down the most bizarre manner I've ever seen. I even saw the drummer and Eleanor start laughing at one point in time.
I'd like to again quote the comments in the Pitchfork review of The Fiery Furnaces EP to finish my concert review:
And for the few of you that cannot handle the frenetic uber-medley that is a Fiery Furnaces live set, I want to make provocative documentary films about your inept and offensive taste and take them on the festival circuit.