I remember I saw Les Savy Fav later in their career, in 2021 when they played Riot Fest. My experience up until then had been their recorded material, especially this album and the also-excellent compilation Inches. It was to my surprise and amusement that I discovered their unique/insane live presence that day – with singer Tim Harrington doing absolutely everything in his power to make a memorable experience for all of us in the sun-beaten crowd, making sure our enthusiasm stayed at maximum levels. Did your enthusiasm level need a check up? Well Tim Harrington was here to fix that for you as he ran around the stage, then to and through the audience, then crowd surfing on top of a folding table. He grabbed people’s glasses off their heads and tried them on. It was exciting to be a part of it, even if I was devising a plan on how to hide if I was the next person he stepped up to. Sunglasses were quickly moved to the pocket.
What I’d consider to be their peak album, Les Savy Fav’s 2007 Let’s Stay Friends holds up well for me with a solid slab of some very catchy variant of noise rock/indie/Pitchfork-buzz-core. Would I even know this was the same person by listening to that album? Maybe not. The energy is there but it’s different. But I kind of like that I had two different Les Savy Fav experiences: what I’d consider their recorded brilliance, and then their absurdly energetic live show (14 years later).
I was surprised when I saw on SputnikMusic (the site I always visit because of its fan rating averages for albums) that after all these years, Let’s Stay Friends has an average fan review score of 3.7 (out of 5.) 3.7 is certainly favorable – above average yes – but I felt like I missed something…See, when this album came out I remember the praise it received, and because of that mixed with my own bias after years of considering it a classic, the 3.7 caught seemed like a really underwhelming score. This album deserved better. How could the people let this album down???
There are plenty of reasons to justify giving this album a higher score than that. Take for example the satisfying punches of the drums on “What Would Wolves Do?” which dance forth into the anthemic tune, pairing nicely with an “Awoooooooo” wolf howl. I find myself joining the pack and “Awooooing” along more often than not. I dig the lyrics too, although I don’t claim to really know what they mean…but I can picture them in the type of poetry book I’d be into*, like:
“The world may seem cruel
The worldly may hate us
In time we will show the world why the world made us”
Once you’re already in a singing mood you might even shout the refrain from “Rage in the Plague Age,” my favorite of the album’s 12 bangers. You can choose to sing the straightforward “I’ll hold my breath, you hit my chest,” or you can choose to sing the same line but in falsetto – yup – your choice. This song was in a Grand Theft Auto game but honestly if I were choosing a single to promote for this album it would be:
“Patty Lee”, whose handclaps and sharp, rhythmic guitar riff grab you and shake you awake, while the head-nodable drumbeat and bassline walk you forward. It’s maybe the most memorable and instantly hooky track on the album, which I feel is saying a lot because the whole album is really well-written.
All in all you get 12 repeat-listen tunes on an album that I do consider classic. I think I’ve listened to it a thousand times and its novelty never wore off. Perhaps knowing the album so well for 14 years did not prepare me at all for seeing the band live in 2021 and being blown away in a different way, seeing the songs with a very different presentation style, and it was pretty awesome.
I just looked up the Setlist.fm breakdown from when they played that Riot Fest set and they did play 4 songs from this album, and I remember them too. Then further into the Internet’s infinite memory I found that you can see that full Riot Fest 2021 set on a YouTube video that is easy to find. Folding table crowd surfing begins at about 24:30! Okay fine, I’ll just give you the video here.
*Despite majoring in English way back when, I don’t ever claim to really know what poetry “means.” Never have, never will. But there is just a certain flow in some language that can speak to my ears, regardless of whether I actually understand the intended message. Or regardless of if there ever even was an intended message to find, because who knows.
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