John Ferrari
Staff Reporter
Nearly two years since the band unpacked from a very extensive tour following their album Something Like Human, Fuel has taken to the street again in support of their new release Natural Selection. The second date of the tour took place this past Saturday night at the Alumni Fieldhouse on the campus of SUNY Oneonta.
At 8 pm, Twin A began a short opening set. The trio of John, Paul, and Jorge played for a half hour in front of a rather unenthused and seemingly lethargic crowd. Although the performance was not thrilling, the band played well.
The most notable aspect of their pop-rock sound was singer John Lardieri’s powerful voice. As part of their last song the band performed their own renditions of Outkast, Missy Elliot, and samples of other rap songs with a rock beat.
Shortly after 9 pm, a much more lively audience greeted Fuel who opened with “Last Time,” the edgy opening track from their last album. The Pennsylvania band truly does concerts well. They toured about a year and a half following their last album.
They are just getting on the road again to support their third major label album that was released yesterday, about three years to the day since their last album.
Fuel played a mix of their songs from their three albums, though most of the songs were from Something Like Human. The abnormally short setlist consisted of all the most popular mainstream songs from their library: “Innocent,” “Shimmer,” and “Sunburn” which had an intro that consisted of a few measures of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Freebird” played by guitarist Carl Bell, along with the current single “Falls on Me.” They also played great songs like “Down” and “Jesus or a Gun” that are always great in concert, with lead singer Brett Scallions’ in-your-face vocals.
Seemingly absent from the setlist were songs “Mary Pretends” and “Ozone,” from their album Sunburn, which have always been fan favorites in concert. The band was also light on playing new material.
Only three songs were played from their new album: “Won’t Back Down,” “Falls On Me,” and “Quarter.” Hopefully this was only due to the fact that some of the band members were ill and the concert was a few days before the album was released and was not the music that anyone from the audience would have known yet.
Fuel left the stage after a little over an hour and returned to play an encore of three songs that they could not have left without playing: “Bittersweet,” “Bad Day,” and “Hemorrhage.” Despite the fact it was a somewhat short performance, Fuel, as always, put on a good show. Fortunately their album is now available so that it can fill in the voids until more dates are added to their fall tour.
