03/03 @ Empire Underground, Albany

“Each member of Foxy Shazam looks plucked from an entirely different band, yet they play in such harmony with such camaraderie that you aren’t left wondering how they found each other, you’re just glad they did.”

It was an icy night in Albany on Tuesday. The kind of night where most would decide to salt their front steps, stay inside, bundle up, and wish they could fast forward to the warm weather projected for next week. However, Foxy Shazam fans knew that tip-toeing through the slushy streets and risking a fall or two would be worth it to see perhaps the most energetic band in the world.

Empire Underground was freezing at first, but heated up immediately. The first opener, Moondough, the project of multi-instrumental singer-songwriter Ken Raymundo and talented four-piece touring band, played unique and uplifting tunes with a bit of soul, funk, and tons of heart. Raymundo gave a shout out to Herbie’s Burgers, eliciting some approving cheers. The members of Moondough were happy to be there and loved what they were doing. Raymundo and the bassist, Steen Kevett-Lopez danced together with such fervor that it was a miracle they didn’t trip over their cords.

A standout song was “Social Disco Dancing,” a relaxed disco tune appropriately about Covid. “I’ll give you that contact high, when your body’s got the feels, what you feel is something real, contact high, just a touch of sex appeal…” You could picture yourself shimmying your shoulders on a tiny Zoom screen in 2020.

Up next was Descartes a Kant, all the way from Guadalajara. While the band set up, the crowd grew quieter, taking in the visual unraveling before them. The band was in matching orange jumpsuits with their logo projected behind them, but the focal point was a machine in the center of their stage. It looked like a shrunken arcade game standing around four feet tall. It started emitting fog, a joystick to the side started glowing and flashing different colors, the keyboard was an ever-moving electric rainbow, made all the more interesting when the lights went down and the projector played the band’s introduction — a loading screen booted up and asked the user to input their information to create a song. The lead singer clicked away.

The concept of their set was that emotional and philosophical concepts were run through the machine, The DAK: “turning your pain into a work of art has never been easier!” They played with dark humor — a video with a computerized voice asked what coping mechanisms they would like to try and listed the positives and negatives of drinking alcohol, taking a new lover… “If you’re sad, experts recommend trying ice cream instead of cocaine!” Someone in the crowd shouted, “I don’t know what’s going on, but I like it!” before they jumped into their first song. Their set was fantastic — theatrical, humorous enough to invite the crowd in, yet emotional enough to sober the audience and make them really pay attention.

No two songs were alike, but one of the most memorable was “A Catastrophe” which the singer, Sandrushka Petrova, dedicated to her mother who passed away last year. The song starts with The DAK listing what it has “found” on depression and philosophy, as if it were a search engine. Their songs have moments of rock, screaming out of desperation, electronic additions, but this one ended on a softer, more sentimental note: “I’ve felt lonely for the last days mother, things have not been good at all, I've felt lonely for the last years mother, and I wish I could jump to your arms…” All the while, The DAK was dutifully projecting what looked like computerized old home videos and shots of crosses in the ground.

At the end of the set, each member of the band donned a clear, space suit helmet that started glowing an electric blue, causing a ripple of cheers of surprise to go through the entire building. The band lined up as The DAK explained that the helmets were part of a new system to accept that the world is not as sad as it seems and is far more beautiful than we remember. The computerized voice asked, “Would you like to restore your faith in humanity? Let’s restart and heal,” causing an explosive cheer from the crowd which was otherwise silently captivated. Ultimately, Descartes A Kant was a perfect opener for Foxy Shazam because, much like Foxy, they are one of those bands you have to see to fully understand.

Then it was time for Foxy Shazam to take the stage. A storied band spanning a little over two decades, their song “Unstoppable” was a sports anthem for much of 2010, the lead singer has collaborated with Macklemore, and the band was featured in the DC Universe because James Gunn is a huge fan. All the while, they’ve maintained their cult following.

Each member of Foxy Shazam looks plucked from an entirely different band, yet they play in such harmony with such camaraderie that you aren’t left wondering how they found each other; you’re just glad they did. Though each member of the band is captivating in their own right, it’s impossible not to focus on Eric Nally, the singer, who never stopped moving the entire set.

Nally, due to his jet black hair and signature mustache, has been compared to Freddie Mercury or even Noel Fielding, however, a more appropriate comparison is Willy Wonka, though not in looks. Nally physically summersaulted up to the microphone, reminding one of Gene Wilder’s famous entrance in the 1971 film. Wilder only accepted the role on the condition that he could enter with a limp, then roll forward, casting doubt over his intentions onto the audience. Nally is a complete wildcard on stage and created so many mythologies around Foxy Shazam that the truth of his stories is still debated in fan circles (but what could you expect from a man that once tried to scar his face to look like a villain during a recorded interview?)

Immediately they started with a deep cut from their second album — “Its Hair Smelled Like Bonfire,” a harder song with more punk rock elements which was the perfect high energy opening featuring the lyrics, “Well we’re ready to roll, well we’re ready to roll.” A few songs in, Nally looked at the crowd and in his distinct cartoon character-eque speaking voice announced, “I want to touch everyone in this room.” Then, with a coy smile and a wag of his finger, “but not physically,” before the band launched into “Holy Touch,” a piece that leans more glam rock and features gospel choir-esque backing vocals.

Nally has catch phrases that he whips out during most shows. This crowd particularly enjoyed his philosophical poem, “Roses are red, violets are blue, Foxy Shazam baby, fuck you” causing raucous cheers before the band leapt into “The Temple,” another unexpected song on the set list. Though the band has had a few lineup changes, Alex Nauth, on horns, thankfully remains consistent. Nauth gives Foxy a distinctive, melodic sound, notable especially at the end of “The Temple.”

Midway through the set, Nally historically asks the audience for a cigarette. In the past, he would put as many as he could between his fingers, smoke them, and eat them, while still lit (oh to be a fly on the wall during conversations with his gastroenterologist). When he faced the crowd and asked the fateful question, a woman up front pulled out a cigarette so immediately that Nally remarked, “oh, you’re fast!” But before another member of the audience could light it for him, the cigarette snapped in half. Nally pulled it from his mouth and, without missing a beat, asked “anybody got a better cigarette?” causing laughter throughout the crowd. A song or so later, Nally found a better cigarette, ate it with the grace of someone eating a French delicacy and quipped “[eating] just one [cigarette] is easy at this point!”

Nally also remarked that many of the songs they were singing were about love that night because “you can never have too many songs about love.” Though not about romantic love, one of the most highly anticipated songs of any Foxy show is “Oh Lord,” a song Nally wrote for his son, Julian, acknowledging that he can’t protect him from the evils of the world so he will have to learn to persevere through adversity in his own time. “‘Cause there is always a wrong to your right, and there will always be a war somewhere to fight, god knows I’ve had some rough fuckin’ years, oh lord, keep on keeping on.”

The final song of the night, “The Only Way to My Heart…,” is a crowd pleaser with an ending that allows the band to be as explosive as they’d like and, boy, did they take the opportunity. With the lyrics “keep the flowers I’ll just give ‘em back, ‘cause the only way to my heart is with an axe” the tune takes a quick paced, yet sultry turn from the previous pieces about love. The end crescendos into absolute chaos, Nally running around on all fours, Misster Universe on bass going into a split, Nauth shaking orgasmically underneath him, Teddy Aitkins going nuts on the drums, Devin Williams playing guitar like it’s the last thing he’ll ever do, and Sky White facing his keyboard out into the crowd, allowing them to hit whichever keys they’d like.

Though the band are certifiable rockstars, their attitudes are anything but self-important. No encore for Foxy Shazam — they played an incredible set spanning their entire discography, blew the crowd’s mind, and left without wasting a minute of their time by doing a fake out encore.

The lights went up, and the audience had to reckon with the fact that the show was over, though adjusting back to civilian life after a Foxy show is a bit jarring. Folks immediately spun around to their friends to discuss what they had just seen; the energy of Foxy Shazam, the world’s most vivacious band, rubbed off on them, a sensation they probably would be coming down from for at least another hour or so. The Capital Region will definitely welcome them back any time.

To see them for yourself, follow them @foxyshazam, @descartesakant, and @moondoughmusic on Instagram.