Fiery Furnaces @ the Crocodile

Oh, no, we've got the right Eleanor Friedberger, Ms. Friedberger. We were there. We saw what you were up to. You and your brother, Matthew, correct? The man making like an evil genius on a midway organ. Look, we just have a few questions, we understand you wrote this, these, yes, these are your words?

And I did not fail to bust off a nail as the dodge door handle dodges my hand -- delicate, delicate, hold my head -- delicate nectarine upside-down chiffon cake. Dodge down the downtown loop the loop lightly, hazelnut baby loaves–hazelnut baby loaves. Hold my head, inside-out upside-down marzipan Milanese -- my brain is a blur -- hodge-podge, cardinal slice, two door, brand new. What am I gonna do, cause on the street the amber lights were hellish hot, and the wind in the windows didn’t, was not, giving air, and tropical Napoleans, but it was too late and I didn’t care -- and I didn’t care.

Now, that's from "A Candymaker's Knife In My Handbag," isn't it? And that's pretty much par for the course? You just stand up there and reel off this singspiel, croon a little, spit out the rest kinda Brass-in-Pockety, and Matthew's fingers fly over the assortment of keyboards so this woozy-floozy, Bach-ic, carny-cabaret spirit infects the whole crowd and even though it's late, it's Tuesday night, no, Wednesday morning, one o' clock, everyone's still there for the encore -- and you were tired, Ms. Friedberger, you did four more songs, you were ready to leave, but Matthew wasn't giving up, was he? Don't worry, Matthew will answer for himself. He'll have his chance.

We'll be honest, Ms. Friedberger, we'd listened to the new album, it was...different, we thought why not hear a live show. We were not planning on getting home at 1:30am. But we had never heard a band like this before -- not live -- maybe back in Weimar, maybe back in bienvenue, wilkommen, the perfectly Weill -- but not with this Brooklyn inflection.

No, no, of course not, we're threatening you. We're not threatening anyone. We'd just like you to think a little about what you did. It's the next morning, everybody's head feels a little clearer, yes? Just consider. And then after the jump, we'll watch "Japanese Slippers." And there will be more questions. Water? Sure. Bring Ms. Friedberger some water, Carl.