In my opinion, the Furnaces are one of the most unique and quality bands around today. Their musical style revolves around a distinctive brand of strangeness coupled with an ironclad storytelling style that is achieved through lyrics that would make a college English professor nervously reach for his dictionary.

The cool thing about Fiery Furnaces’ concerts is that you don’t hear anything of theirs that you have heard before. While they do play the same songs with the same lyrics and titles as the ones on their albums live, the Furnaces add massive amounts of stylistic and structural change to the mix.

They work out a set of fragments from selected songs in their discography, which are then re-tooled to be more mainstream and concert worthy. They then fuse these song fragments together to make four or five mega-songs, taking a few second break between them. The result is a unique and engrossing concert experience. The audience is still able to sing along to a lot of the songs, but the thrill and joy of hearing something new is ever present at the gig. This method of doing things gives the audience the large doses of rock that they want from a concert while retaining the fluid dynamics that make the Furnaces great to begin with.

The opening band, Pitter Pat was enjoyable as well. At first, I wasn’t sure about them, but as they warmed up, they became more impressive. The drummer for Pitter Pat was especially skilled and enjoyable to watch. If you think of yourself as a fan of the Furnaces, chances are that Pitter Pat would be a good match for you.

All in all, even if you are not familiar with the Furnaces’ work, I would still recommend going to see them in concert the next time they come through town.