Friko played Brighton Music Hall – 4/12
Chicago’s Friko made their Boston debut earlier this month at BMH. __________
If I may illustrate my belief in the rock band Friko for a moment, I had fully assumed that the strength of February’s debut LP Where we’ve been, Where we go from here already qualified them to be headlining rooms the size of Brighton Music Hall. That was not the case, I learned the day before a show earlier this month – they were actually on tour supporting Nashville indie-pop crew Willis – but to my ears Friko are there already. The short-but-sweet set from singer/guitarist Niko Kapetan, drummer Bailey Minzenberger and bassist David Fuller only reinforced that notion, playing to the sold-out and already-packed room like it was an assemblage of their own die-hards.
Where we’ve been leaps forth from the speakers as one of the more vital capital-IR Indie Rock releases in recent memory, and the live set boasted every bit the same heart in balancing a tender side (the twinkling “For Ella”) with plenty of anthemic punch (the frantic fever-pitch of set closer “Get Numb to It!”). There’s a spark akin to Meadowlands-era Wrens in Friko’s DNA, and even with a catalog consisting of just the record and a handful of EPs and singles, they already feel like something special. The enthusiastic crowd at BMH – plenty of whom were there for the opener judging by the length of the merch line after the set – seemed to concur. I’d bet good money on the premonition of their next tour being a properly-sized headliner coming true pretty soon.
Scroll below for a gallery from the evening (not including Willis – sorry to Willis but the early set time here did afford me the opportunity to catch all four bands of a local metal showcase up the street at O’Brien’s – nothing personal!)