FACS w/ Fine Place at Union Pool, Brooklyn, NY – 2.14.23
Union Pool has been hosting free events on Tuesday nights for the last two months. Valentine’s eve brought in art rock noise masters FACS from Chicago. Anchored by Noah Leger’s monster drumming and returning member Jonathan Van Herik on Bass, Brain Case weaved his ethereal, fluttering, guitar parts around his foreboding vocals. They played several new tracks off their upcoming release “Still Life In Decay” (April 7, 2023 on Trouble In Mind Records) as well as more recent material to a packed house.
They are currently on a mini U.S. tour in but they’ll be back in Brooklyn at TV Eye on May 18.
Brooklyn local Frankie Rose’s new project Fine Place opened the show squeezing their synths and other musical gismos onto an already cramped stage made smaller by the video screen bisecting the small space. They played songs from their new album “This New Heaven”. Their sound combined elements of early eighties synth pop and dream pop. At one point an audience member dressed like Siouxsie Sioux danced in front of the stage to a track that reminded me of Ultravox and it was 1980 all over again for me. I don’t think the mostly younger crowd got that reference. 
Author
Eric K. Andersen is a former record company weasel who currently goes to a lot of concerts and takes pictures. You can find his website by clicking the link icon below.