On to something a little less heavy – a video of Fleet Foxes playing ‘Drops in the River’ in Café Zapata in Berlin. I took this on my pretty basic digital camera (hence the bad sound, sorry!) and as you’ll see I was really bloody lucky and literally right in front of the band.

It was at a gig in July 2008 when I didn’t even own the album – I got it pretty much the next day (while kicking myself for not buying it on vinyl at the gig, gah!) I’d gone to Berlin with Mr Sweet Oblivion for a short trip and we noticed that these young fellas we’d been hearing so much about called ‘Fleet Foxes’ were playing down the road, so went there not knowing what to expect…and left mesmerised.  I really was prepared to think ‘yeah, shouldn’t have believed the hype’, as I am cynical old bat at times, but it really was something special. And I’ve mentioned my love for harmonies before haven’t I? Well these guys had them in spades…

It was a tiny, tiny place, with a huge dragon over the bar that actually breathed fire (you can see it a little bit at one point) – which frightened the life out of me as I have somewhat of a phobia of fire – and it turned into a total sweatbox over the few hours Fleet Foxes played. They did three encores and looked blown away with the reaction they got. Really humble.  I’ll probably never get to see them in a small venue like this again – and I didn’t buy tickets for the forthcoming Vicar St show but the last one was really great, though I couldn’t see much – so I treasure this video a lot.

Enjoy!