Fountains of Wayne - The Trocodero - Philadelphia (A PopEntertainment.com Concert Review)

Fountains of Wayne - The Trocodero - Philadelphia PA - April 28, 2007

The best live rock band in the world – Fountains of Wayne?

It's not so far-fetched.

The Fountains rocked the joint recently in this gig, a show which only benefited by the venue's colorful history (it was a burlesque joint in the 1920s). This past seediness lent depth and color to FOW's power pop short stories of desperate outsiders trying to make it in a world that really doesn't give a shit about them.

The band has a mastery of styles and irony that if possible is even stronger in person than on their CDs. For example there is the spaghetti-western dry lament "Hackensack," in which a loser in a small town in New Jersey still pines away after a first-grade crush, who has since become an A-List actress. Beyond being a surprisingly beautiful song, the depths of the narrator's self-delusion is touching.

Then there are the lovely flamenco touches of "Hey, Julie" in which a worker drone has only his girlfriend to look forward to in life. The band turns up the rock on "Bright Future In Sales," about a kid out of college who is being overwhelmed by his first NYC job, perhaps because he is getting plastered every night in Manhattan. They also slammed out the grunge-flavored early hit "Radiation Vibe."

By the time the familiar nuevo-Cars power chords of their biggest hit – the fractured MILF fantasy "Stacy's Mom" – rang out over the crowd, they had the audience eating out of their hands. Great tunes, funny banter... and there were periodic jokes at the expense of Neil Sedaka (who the band had backed in concert in New York the night before.) What more can you ask for in a rock show?

Jay S. Jacobs