 | | I'm From Barcelona (pic: Ulf Magnusson) |
Bonkers, yes, but also one of the best ideas to hit modern music, if their energetic and exuberant stage show at Academy 3 was anything to go by. Not that everything was kept to the stage. "We’ll be mixing amongst you tonight," grinned the effervescent Emanuel, "I hope that’s ok." Sure enough, within minutes of the opener, he was up on the arms of the audience for the first of several off-stage wanders. It was a good thing that he had such energy. The first half of their short and very sweet set was beset by technical difficulties, possibly down to the fact that 15 of them were tramping round the stage. Such things don’t faze IFB. Step forward Erik, a bespectacled, dreadlocked tuba player who, according to Emanuel’s commentary, was born in a cage and can only communicate using the brass instrument. But a second before he goes for it, Emanuel was told the problems had been solved. "We’ve got the electricity back, but I don’t care," he winked defiantly, "I want to hear Erik’s song."  | | I'm From Barcelona (pic: Ulf Magnusson) |
It was that sort of night. From there, the ramshackle joyful stage invasion of a band worked through such singalong brilliance as Chicken Pox - a song about childhood disease, Treehouse - about building a treehouse, and their theme tune We’re From Barcelona, which, well, explains itself. There was even time for an impromptu version of label-mates Roxette’s Dressed For Success, a kazoo solo, a lighter-in-the-air epic finale and an encore that featured a new song about watching Wes Anderson’s film The Life Aquatic. Inevitably, it all closed with an anti-stage invasion, the entire band leaping out into the audience for a sing, a dance and, in one case, a lofted walk through the crowd to be deposited on the bar. Different they may be, but more importantly, I’m From Barcelona are, in a word, fun. |
