November 15, 2009 – SOMA San Diego
by: Myles Crawley

The other night I went out with my son Cullen to see a band called “fun.”. I ran across fun. a few days before when I received an email from their publicist announcing the release of their newest video for a song called “All the pretty girls”. The show was at an all ages club and, since Cullen is only 13, I saw it as a good opportunity to have a boys night out. The club was pretty full when we got there (amazing for a Sunday night), and funny enough the audience was predominantly female. Cullen certainly seemed happy about that since nearly all were under the age of 18. I, on the other hand, would’ve been more comfortable being surrounded by drunk bikers.

Fun. came on a few minutes after we arrived. One of their first numbers was an up-tempo piece called “Walking the dog”. From note one all the female members of the audience were singing along and seemed to innately know when the singer, Nate Ruess, expected them to fill in the lyrical blanks that he was reserving just for them. These guys were most definitely POP. The melodies were infectious and the hooks were coming at us rapid fire. Being a writer and musician myself I can usually tell within a song or two, who does the songwriting and what instrument the music is being written on. In fun’s case it was vocalist, Ruess, and the keyboardist/trumpeter/guitarist Andrew Dost doing the writing. The instrument of choice was most definitely piano/keys. Their writing style seemed to me to be kind of “Keene”-ish but with a strong sense of madrigals, or vocal theater. There were a total of six members in the band (five guys and one girl) and all but the drummer sang, which made for some very nicely executed multi-part harmonies. Nate Ruess sang a song called “The Gambler” that showcased his vocal abilities quite nicely, and demonstrated a keen sense of emotion and delivery.

This show was the last date of their tour for this year. I’ve gotta say that it kind of showed. Nate Ruess commented that they had been opening for a headliner who’s audience didn’t particularly care for fun’s brand of pop. So they seemed a little gun shy at first, but quickly got over it when they realized that this audience (all 500 girls) was totally with them. But the most obvious “end of tour” sign for me was the way they were dressed. It was as if all of their cool clothes were dirty and shoved in a suitcase somewhere, and all they had left was the un-cool stuff they hadn’t ever intended on wearing, on stage at least. I don’t know why it bothered me. It certainly didn’t seem to have any lasting negative effect on the 500 girls that surrounded me.

All in all, fun. played a solid set. They closed the show with “All the pretty girls” and every girl in the place imagined Ruess was singing directly to them. Cullen and I boogied out to the car before the throngs of young ladies could react. On our way out, Cullen told me about this couple that had been standing behind him. He said the girl had a huge smile on her face and was singing along with the band. The guy on the other hand looked glum and bored and was probably trying to remember why exactly he had agreed to come in the first place, which leads me to my final remarks on fun. Kind of like a chick flick. Girls would say that fun. is fun with an exclamation point, while guys would say fun. was fun with a question mark. Hmm…

photos by: Myles Crawley