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THE FIERY FURNACES
A Family Affair

The Fiery Furnaces’ synapse-snapping prog-rock is difficult to pin down because it’s so utterly unlike anything else. And live, they so completely rework their intricate recordings — deconstructing finely synthesized soundscapes, tearing through them at blinding speed as Matthew Friedberger hunches over his organ like a sinister phantom and his sister Eleanor scales incantatory heights with her rapid-fire speak-sing — that it can be hard to tell which song they’re playing.

It is a glorious noise. Last Wednesday at the MFA’s Remis Auditorium, the Friedbergers, augmented by frenetic drummer Bob D’Amico and ex-Sebadoh bassist Jason Lowenstein, powered through selections from 2003’s Gallowsbird’s Bark and 2004’s Blueberry Boat (both Rough Trade). On "Crystal Clear," Eleanor — who apologized for a cold that had her "croaking like a frog" — scatted as Matthew’s popping guitar leads zoomed like neutrinos. "Straight Street" brought the drums to the fore, adorned with flowery psychedelic flourishes. The sonic tumult of "Tropical Ice Land" evoked a video arcade in the lower reaches of Hell.

It was all a prelude to the show’s centerpiece — a performance of almost the entirety of the forthcoming Rehearsing My Choir (Rough Trade, October 25). The disc features the wistful remembrances of the duo’s 83-year-old grandmother, Olga Sarantos. Live, Eleanor sang those parts, a torrent of words flowing over a long and protean song suite that vacillated from guitar-heavy boogie to spare, echoing idylls, from sunny melodies to murky synth washes, plodding proto-metal to dainty minuets.

But it was more than just sound and fury. Whereas early Fiery Furnaces recordings were willfully obscure, Rehearsing My Choir is grounded in Olga’s rich memories. On "Seven Silver Curses," Eleanor, channeling her grandmother, drops the linguistic trickery and says it plainly, "I thought of our wedding day, and I was happy. Very simply, happy."

BY MIKE MILIARD

Issue Date: October 21 - 27, 2005
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