Like many of those in attendance, I spent a good bit of time reveling in the lush soundscapes of Fleet Foxes’ 2020 album, Shore, during the pandemic. The band’s tour recently brought them to Merriweather Post Pavilion and proved a great showcase for the album. The set opened with the album’s first three songs and featured seven of the songs overall.
The smallish but fervent crowd swelled just before the band started their set at Merriweather Post Pavilion on Aug. 9. Then, the skies opened up for a torrential downpour and those with lawn tickets were allowed to seek shelter in the pavilion during the show.
Lead singer and songwriter Robin Pecknold was in great spirits, chatting with the audience in between songs, plugging his favorite tea brand and giving props to the admin behind the Fleet Foxes Lyric Twitter bot, who was in attendance. The band was filled out by guitarist Skyler Skjelset, multi-instrumentalist Casey Wescott, bassist Christian Wargo, and bassist Morgan Henderson.
I was struck but how silent and locked in the crowd was during the performance. You could have heard a pin drop during the quiet parts of “Featherweight” or “He Doesn’t Know Why.”
Watch the official music video for “Featherweight” by Fleet Foxes on YouTube:
Some of the biggest cheers for the night were for a katydid that was on stage crawling over the sound equipment. An audience member pointed the insect out to Pecknold and the camera operator in the pit dutifully tracked the insect’s movements around the stage for the next few minutes to roars of approval from the crowd.
Setlist
Wading in Waist‐high Water
Sunblind
Can I Believe You
Ragged Wood
Your Protector
He Doesn’t Know Why
Featherweight
Third of May/Ōdaigahara
White Winter Hymnal
Phoenix (Big Red Machine cover)
Mearcstapa
Mykonos
Blue Spotted Tail
If You Need To, Keep Time on Me
The Kiss (Judee Sill cover)
Drops in the River
A Long Way Past the Past
Blue Ridge Mountains
Grown Ocean
Encore:
The Shrine/An Argument
For a Week or Two (with Uwade)
Going-to-the-Sun Road (with Uwade)
Helplessness Blues
Here are images of Fleet Foxes performing at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD, on Aug. 9, 2022. All photos copyright and courtesy of Kyle Gustafson.
