The power of music to transform is amazing. At 5 p.m. on Tuesday, I walked into a very empty 9:30 Club and met a slightly confused, very bedraggled Welshman. At 10:00 p.m., I returned to a very different sight: a packed house and the raucous, drugged-out performance of Wales’ greatest pop musicians, the Super Furry Animals.
When I met bassist Guto Pryce (bear with the Welsh), he looked like some kind of pirate. With one earring, an exhausted face and a ratty sweatshirt, he didn’t exactly seem ready to rock. In fact, he looked like he had just gotten rocked. Still, he was excited to be touring the U.S. again, an experience he called “mythical” and “exotic.”
“We’re not U2 big, or Coldplay big; we get respectful audiences, we’ve got a fan-base more than anything,” Pryce said. “With the internet, there’s definitely a community out there; the world’s getting smaller.”
SFA consists of Pryce, front man Gruff Rhys, guitarist Huw Bunford, drummer Dafydd Ieuan and Cian Ciaran on keyboard. They have been producing their uniquely Welsh take on pop music since 1993.
Their sound is a mixture of ‘70s pop and psychedelica, Tom Jones-esque lounge singer vocals and ‘90s Britpop, like a suaver Blur or a slightly less crazy Flaming Lips. As their sound developed, it led the Furries to success with seven studio albums, including the recent Love Kraft, released this year alongside of a singles compilation. Now, four more albums from their back catalogue are being re-released in the United States, to great critical acclaim.
Fiercely proud of their Welsh heritage, the band sings many of their songs in that language, for musical and political reasons alike.
“Some things you say better in Welsh,” Pryce said. “Speaking Welsh is almost a political act in itself because it’s a struggle for the language … when you speak Welsh you’re aware of the political side to it … it’s a language that the English could have killed off, and would have been very happy to do so, like what happened in Ireland, Scotland and Cornwall. It’s also a language with different sounds and different rhythms than English.”
The band is not content to rest on musical accomplishments alone. They are known for their energetic and trippy live show, appearing in animal costumes and using video to complement their playing. They didn’t disappoint in D.C., appearing in glowing, battery-powered fur suits in front of a massive video screen. While they played, all kinds of images, ranging from psychedelic to purely bizarre, bounced across the screen in time to the music.
Their hour-plus set drew heavily from Love Kraft but also found time for fan favorites like “Something 4 the Weekend” and “Rings Around the World.” Fans went mad as Rhys devoured sticks of celery, threw several into the crowd and then donned a Power Rangers helmet for one song. Now that’s entertainment.
For now, SFA has a long tour ahead of them. Until they come back, content yourself with their enormous back catalogue of albums and dreams of celery flying over your head. The Furries will have to content themselves with dreams of their own home country’s pastimes. We asked Pryce what he’d pick if he needed something 4 the weekend. His response?
“Football … Soccer!”
