Handsome Furs Use Chicago Crowd as 'Guinea Pigs' for Seven New Songs

Posted on Jan 16th 2011 11:20AM by Garin Pirnia
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Liam Maloney

Recently, Dan Boeckner announced his band Wolf Parade are going on hiatus so he can work on the Handsome Furs' third album with bandmate and wife Alexei Perry. For its lone tour date scheduled in 2011 (so far), the dynamic duo performed a total of seven new songs at Chicago's Lincoln Hall Saturday night for the Tomorrow Never Knows Festival.

Since they had spent the greater part of last year touring Eastern Europe and Asia, Boeckner told the crowd he was relieved this was the first English speaking show they'd played in over eight months. Dressed in spandex and leather shorts, Perry aerobically kicked out her legs and head banged while she twisted knobs on the drum machine. On the other side of the stage, Boeckner multitasked on the guitar and keys.

The Furs opened with a brand new song, which featured skittering beats, electro tinges, heavy vibrations and early '80s influences. Over half of their set was comprised of new ones, some with just keys and the drum machine, and others with the guitar added. Before they performed a song they wrote just a few days ago, they confessed they hadn't played it all the way through yet and felt "terrified" to use the audience as "guinea pigs" -- but they nailed it. Another new one, 'Bury Me Standing,' continued the electro theme, while a song they've been playing live since 2009, 'Agony,' generated booming effects and major hair whipping.

Besides experimenting with new songs, the Furs touched upon 'Legal Tender,' 'All We Want, Baby, Is Everything,' 'I'm Confused' and the chaotic bliss of 'Radio Kalininbrad' from 'Face Control.' For the final song of the regular set, Perry and Boeckner switched places and performed a slow burner which resulted in machine-gun ratatat noises and the band being engulfed in puffs of smoke.

The Furs came back for a two-song encore and performed 'Dead + Rural' from their first record, 'Plague Park,' which is about growing up in a small town in British Columbia. They ended the night on a new one they'd been playing out for a while, 'No Feelings,' a song Boeckner prefaced was about a drunk Serbian friend who wished she didn't have feelings. After the heart-pounding drums, blaring reverb and romantic embers subsided, Perry and Boeckner reiterated to the audience how "f---in' sweet" it was to play for them and took a final bow.

Handsome Furs Perform 'No Feelings' in 2010