Sunday night felt a little bit like a Saturday night at the Black Cat. Yay, Foals! People danced. Two notes about the show:

1. The sum of 2008’s Antidotes and 2010’s Total Life Forever equals validation for anybody who thought the ’00s D.C. nerd-funk of Q And Not U and The Dismemberment Plan still had more places to go. Foals kick it back at us with English niceties and Glastonbury-sized sonics—i.e. the mass appeal it might’ve had eventually.

2. Those Total Life Forever songs obviously have more breathing room and bigger emotions than the tightened-up jams on Antidotes. And although the new things don’t fully scratch the math-rock itch, they’re still full of note-by-note purpose. Maybe that’s why the live set left me yearning—in a connect-the-dots way—for some O.G. Eno/Lanois U2*, especially this song:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHa4y0uGKZw]

* Of course, any Unforgettable Fire reference is not a completely original thought, but I did not know it then.