Friko, man. Fucking brilliant.
Friko’s 2024 album Where We've Been, Where We Go From Here is one of the most interesting, emotional, and exciting albums of 2024. It’s everything rock is supposed to be. Anthemic, loud guitars? Check. John Lennon-ish angst and introspection? Check. Earwormy, Paul McCartney-ish melodies? Check. Youthful passion, poetry, and poignancy? Check.
The Kinks. The Pixies. Radiohead. Jeff Buckley. Cage the Elephant. Friko is an evolutionary offshoot on a branch of rock that has yielded some of the most thoughtful, intelligent music of the past 60 years. I had high hopes for a moving performance. Friko rewarded those hopes.
At the Fox Theater on Friday night, Friko opened for Australia’s Royel Otis. More on the headliner in a moment. The truth is, I had never heard of Royel Otis until the day of the show. A few months ago, I noted on my calendar that Friko had a date at the Fox in Oakland on their website—and it was only after I got my photo pass request approved on the morning of the show that I looked to see what time the show began and noticed that Friko was the opening act. Total unprofessional "whoops!" on my part, but what the heck, I always like checking out new music.
Friko hails from the Chicago area. The recording duo comprising Niko Kapetan (vocals, guitar) and Bailey Minzenberger (drums) is on tour with an additional bass player and guitarist who add high-energy dynamics, both audibly and visually. Where We've Been, Where We Go From Here is their first full-length album, and Friday night was their first time playing in Oakland.
Kapetan opened the set solo on guitar, introducing himself to the audience (most of whom were there for Royel Otis) with the fervid emotion of his poetry and the vibrancy and charisma of his voice. Following that, the rest of the band came on stage and tore into the raucous "Crimson to Chrome." Friko used their too-short 40-minute slot to alternate between high-energy rock and deeply poignant, melodic numbers. In all, they played most of Where We've Been, Where We Go From Here.
A notable highlight was the Jeff Buckley-ish "Cardinal," an occasion for Kapetan to showcase his marvelous falsetto. It’s a sad song touching on loss—wistful and plaintive, albeit with a touch of hope when a bit of whistling comes in after the last chorus:
Then the evening came and crushed me
The cardinal hit the ground
Someone else instead of me
Figured it all out
Niko, where's your fight now?
"Where We've Been" followed, building a bridge from the lo-fi dynamics of the preceding song to a crescendo of guitar noise and impassioned thrashing on stage. An appropriately loud, bodacious rendition of "Get Numb to It!" closed the set. Friko had delivered the goods!
Royel Otis, the headliner on Friday, is an Australian duo hailing from Sydney. Ostensibly a duo like Friko, Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic just released their first full-length album this year. They are riding a wave of notoriety that includes over 100 million Spotify plays for "Oysters in My Pocket." A single of The Cranberries' "Linger" has done nearly as well, landing Royel Otis on the Billboard Hot 100 this summer.
Maddell and Pavlovic took command of a wide stage backed by risers for a drummer and a keyboard player, both of whom also added some backing vocals throughout the night. The band was also backed by a rather large orange prawn hanging under the lights where some less imaginative bands might drape, say, a big flag with the band's name. It wasn't clear why the prawn was there (although some of Royel Otis's song titles, like "Fried Rice," "Claw Foot," "Kool Ade," and the aforementioned "Oysters in My Pocket" hint at a fun obsession with food), but it was kind of cool. Side note: it must be Seafood Week at the Fox, because the following night's headliner was Shannon and the Clams.
Pavlovic did most of the singing, sometimes with a guitar strapped on but mostly with his hands wrapped around the mic. Maddell strummed his guitar with the kind of constant, almost-frenzied up-and-down picking made famous by U2's The Edge. Between Pavlovic's verses and choruses, Maddell punctuated the song breaks with catchy, memorable notes. (Fun fact: Maddell apparently doesn't like close-ups of his face in photos, and the photogs in front were confined to the edge of the pit furthest away from him. Most of the pics that come up in a Google Images search show him hiding his face with his hands or hair.)
Royel Otis has a "big beat" sound that brings to mind Foster the People, MGMT, and fellow Sydneysiders INXS. (OK, I admit I had to ask ChatGPT, "What do you call people from Sydney?") It’s jangly, danceable stuff. The audience ate it up.
For the encore, the duo came out without their backing musicians for "Linger." The crowd sang along. (Consider this for a moment: The Cranberries released that song in 1993. It is certain that neither the members of Royel Otis nor about half of the audience members were even alive then. It's what you might call an "oldie.") Pavlovic honored the crowd's participation: "You guys did so fucking good with that! Thanks for all your help."
He also thanked the silent member of the band. "A big shout out to this huge fucking prawn here behind us." But apparently, the prawn has a contractual agreement limiting its onstage time to barely more than an hour. It was not a lengthy show. Even so, Royel Otis is likely to return with more big beats and food-influenced song titles.
