The Fleet Foxes came to Atlanta on Saturday night, playing the Coca Coca Roxy, while on their first big world tour since releasing their 2020 Grammy-nominated album Shore.
Bringing with them to open the show on this tour, Uwade, this was a big return to touring for the Fleet Foxes. Uwade is a young, up and coming Nigerian-American artist who Fleet Foxes frontman Robin Pecknold fell in love with her voice when he heard her cover of the band’s song “Mykonos” on her Instagram. Pecknold loved her voice so much that he asked her to perform Shore; and it’s her vocals that we first hear on the album, performing on album opener “Wading in Waist-High Water.” Not only did Uwade play a beautiful set of original songs, she also joined Fleet Foxes onstage, opening their set with “Wading …”. Uwade also returned to the stage during the encore, joining the band on “Going-to-the-Sun Road”, also off of Shore.
For the Fleet Foxes, their 20+ song set in Atlanta came from across their full discography. The band, including the seemingly always dapper these days Robin Pecknold, seemed to be really enjoying themselves, being on the road for the first time in a long while. And as Pecknold pointed out, EVERYONE was able to make it out on this tour – key members like Skyler Skjelset, Casey Wescott, Christian Wargo, and Morgan Henderson; but also secondary members who have been a big part over the years like the horn section, The Westerlies. When you bring 9 band members onstage night in and night out, it may not be the same 9 every tour, but for this tour, it was a big and complete feeling band. So they were ready to play a little of it all.
And the Fleet Foxes played plenty, could you really ask for a better setlist?: “Ragged Wood”, “Your Protector”, “Featherweight”, “Third of May”, “White Winter Hymnal”, “Mykonos”, “Blue Ridge Mountains”, “Grown Ocean”, which closed their initial set, “The Shrine” during the encore, and of course, closing it down with “Helplessness Blues”. There was even a cover of Judee Sill’s “The Kiss”, which had Robin bragging about The Westerlies’ arrangement before they played the song. Gorgeous. Robin even gave the rest of the band a break at times, playing a few solo songs (“Blue Spotted Tail”, etc.) and bringing a few members out at a time. It was a truly beautiful experience that had the Atlanta audience hanging on each song, note by note, line by line.
Truly though, a night spent with the Fleet Foxes and this tour’s opener, Uwade, is a night for the heavens. 10+ years in as band, and 4 full length albums, the Fleet Foxes aren’t just a great indie band, they one of the best bands in the world. There are still some North America tour dates coming up before the band head’s off to Europe. Catch them live now.
Check out photos below from the Fleet Foxes set at the Coca Cola Roxy in Atlanta, GA on Saturday, July 30th, all photos by Mike Gerry:
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