Imagine, if you will, Freddie Mercury getting an adrenaline shot straight to the heart and being set loose on a pop rock-infused acid trip at Coney Island, and you may come close to the energy levels unleashed at Crescent Ballroom this past week. That’s right, Foxy Shazam was in town and brought their Rockin’Rolla Coast Tour to Phoenix, loaded up the ride vehicles, and rocketed a packed house into the air.
Fronted by Eric Nally (who began the show with his shirt mostly torn off), Foxy Shazam has a stage presence that is singular and unique to them. From Sky White playing keyboard while essentially crowd surfing (forever changing the rules on what a keyboardist can accomplish athletically) and Alex Nauth playing the trumpet while bounding into the air, to Teddy Aitkins going savage on the drums with Trevor “Existential Youth” Erb and Devin Williams doing their whirling dervish impression on bass and guitar (respectively) on either side of him, all while Nally is flipping and somersaulting across the stage. There’s no stopping any of them once the music kicks off.
This was a show that started in top gear, managed to find two or three more, and careened gracefully back into the station almost 2 hours later. No lyrics were missed, no notes were flubbed, sword swallowers were fed (literally, Hot Fix Sideshow‘s were on hand), the music fed the carnival atmosphere as the crowd joined in the exquisite, joyous, theatrical chaos.
For their set, Foxy Shazam relied heavily on older albums, which gave them nine albums full of stadium-level sing-a-longs and fist-pumping anthems to choose from. While they recently released Animality Opera back in March of this year, the spoken word portions make it a bit harder to translate to a live crowd without Shamon Cassette present. Only “Pink Skies” made it into the set list. The rest of the list was a near “Best of” compilation, with “Oh Lord” (from 2010’s self-titled Foxy Shazam and which Nally dedicated to all the parents in the crowd), “Seagulls Over Rhinosouras Bay Pt II” (2005’s The Flamingo Trigger), “Holy Touch” (2012’s The Church of Rock and Roll), and “The Only Way to My Heart…” (2010’s Foxy Shazam) being standout tracks.
The Rockin’Rolla Coast Tour is currently whipping around the country, and if it’s pulling into a loading station (or venue) near you, Foxy Shazam is hands down the best ticket in town that night.
