Faith No More's keyboardist Roddy Bottum exclaimed "We're back! No, not back, but we're back!" after returning to the stage for Faith No More's first encore in the US in nearly 13 years last night for the first of three sold out shows at the Warfield in San Francisco.
And as Jake Blues would say, 'they got the band back together' (with the exception of original guitarist Jim Martin)!
After nearly 9 months of touring outside the US, Faith No More kicked off three home-town shows last night with the classic love song from Peaches and Herb, "Reunited" as the crowd rekindled their love for one of the greatest and original funk-metal-prog-rock bands of our time.
Here's the show opener, "Reunited" -- (it's dark for the first few minutes):
Just like the announcement that came over a year ago that the band would reunite and tour again, Mike Patton and the boys quickly launched from "Reunited" into "From Out of Nowhere" and the night of classic Faith No More songs began.
Throughout the night, the band seemed cohesive and most of all, seemed to be enjoying the time on stage in front of their hometown crowd. At one point, joking as they polled the crowd to find out how many out-of-towners had made it to the show. Only to call them fuckers for coming when the show was meant for their locals!
During "Evidence" Patton not only dove into the crowd, but also sang a few verses of the song in Italian -- even while crowd surfing.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the band, they consisted of:
Mike Patton (vocals)
Roddy Bottum (keyboards)
Billy Gould (bass)
Mike Bordin (drums)
Jon Hudson (guitar)
Incredibly, the band moved effortlessly between lounge-y ballads and thrash metal hardcore riffs. And at one point in the evening, mashing their early classic from 1987, 'Chinese Arithmetic' with Lady Gaga's "Pokerface".
Checkout "Chinese Arithmetic" mashed with Lady Gaga's "Pokerface":
The full setlist included:
Reunited
From Out of Nowhere
Land of Sunshine
Caffeine
Evidence
The Gentle Art of Making Enemies
Chinese Arithmetic w/ Lady Gaga's Pokerface
Last Cup of Sorrow
Cuckoo for Caca
Easy
Ashes to Ashes
Midlife crisis w/ Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke"
Surprise your dead
King For a Day
Epic
Just a Man
Encore 1:
Ole Ole (Soccer anthem)
Chariots of Fire
Stripsearch
Digging the Grave
Encore 2:
This Guy's in Love with You
We care a lot
Encore 3:
Introduce Yourself (?)
I've included "Introduce Yourself", although I left the venue thinking that "We Care a Lot" was their closer. If you stayed and heard them play "Introduce Yourself", let me know!
For those of you who are fans of Mike Patton, you might be interested in my review of the Crudo show from the Great American a couple of years ago.
