The Fiery Furnaces Strip it Down, Fuzz it up Live

Notorious for their creative schizophrenia and chameleonic nature, The Fiery Furnaces have bounced back-and-forth between a dizzying array of styles over the years. And when they tour, this sibling-fronted indie rock outfit often follows one of their genre tangents for an entire show, only to completely switch gears for the next night's gig. All of the genre hopscotch would irritate...if they didn't do it so much of it so damned well.

Wednesday night's Chop Suey show didn't bring the bouncy, giddily-loopy pop Fiery Furnaces, or the Wildly-Experimental Electronic Noodler Fiery Furnaces, or the eccentric-but-charming Partridge-Family-from-outer-space Fiery Furnaces, or the Mutated Electric Blues Revivalist Fiery Furnaces. Nope, the Garage-Rocking Fiery Furnaces came to town. To which I say, right on.

A great rhythm section (drummer Robert D'Amico and ex-Sebadoh bassist Jason Loewenstein) kept things hopping, and lead singer Eleanor Friedberger held centerstage with wiry energy, bringing to mind (mine, at least) a more tuneful Patti Smith. Her brother Matthew, however, flat-out blew me away.

I'm normally not one for guitar heroics, but Matthew's control of the six-string reduced me to gawping awe more than once. He strangled dirty blues riffs, T. Rex-style rhythm chugs, and chunky garage-rock chords from his guitar (sometimes all at once), all without missing a beat. Blessedly, the virtuosity never interfered with the songs.

All told, a party pooper might've groused about the Furnaces compromising their experimental side for the sake of rocking out live, but a sizeable Chop Suey crowd relished the trade-off--myself most emphatically included.