the furios

LOS FURIOS PROFILE
Published by CBC RADIO 3
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It's usually late and blurry when The Furios take the stage. The crowd is drunk, weaving, thirsty for a rhythm robust enough to get the blood pumping through their distressed livers. But even if it's early when the Furios play - and heaven help any band that has to follow them - they invariably go on for far longer than they're meant to. By sheer force of the audience's will they're often kept on stage until they cannot play any longer, until their fingers are numb and their lips are like jelly. The Furios are willing slaves to popular demand.

A good Furios show, like any fine piece of music, will make you remember why you're alive - and this is what live music should aspire to do. But, particularly in their hometown of Vancouver, where the common inclination for show-goers is to hang about at the back of the room with their elbows on the bar, there don't seem to be a lot of bands that can pull it off. But The Furios, to be sure, are more than just another ska band.

And as a ska skeptic, my word on this is sound. To be honest, and I hope you don't mind me saying this, you there in the pork pie hat, but ska has become a little boring lately. Beats and melodies that were fresh and exciting when Prince Buster and the Skatalites broke them out in Jamaica in the 1960s are too often simply rehashed by the modern Third Wave ska derivatives. The Furios fall prey to no such predicament. When music is good enough to make your head bob involuntarily, it transcends the limiting pigeonholes of genre anyway, but the necessity to employ a half a dozen adjectives to describe The Furios' music is a testament to their peerless sound.

The Furios' blend of ska, reggae music and catchy punk brings together elements for an energetic live performance that commands an audience's attention in a way that a single-genre band might have to employ acrobatics and pyrotechics to accomplish. Certainly they are part of a prevailing trend of genre mixing: a lot of bands have realized that new sounds or at least new combinations of sounds are what is needed to hold the interest of audiences that have an increasingly jaded musical palate - it's just that The Furios do it so skillfully. In the middle of a steady ska beat they retreat into a rock steady rhythm, soon surging forward to shake the room. With tight sax and trombone blasts and flawless rhythm, they are a whirling tempest you can feel in your tailbone and crawling across your scalp. Just as they reach a furious crest, they fall back again, ebbing into a rolling reggae beat, keeping their audience perpetually, refreshingly off balance.

There are no boundaries that The Furios are unwilling to cross to put together a set that flows and remains appealing for unusually long stretches at a time. The band, all of whom sing and contribute to the songwriting process, write with their audience in mind. They ditch the two-tone, suit-wearing, 2-4 beat ska rulebook and play what they think will keep listeners engaged.
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For The Furios it's all about keeping their audiences, and themselves, amused. The ambitions they hold for their current cd and forthcoming album have little to do with commercial radio play but are more about attracting an enduring grassroots following that will last longer than one or two hit songs. To this end they have a profound appreciation for their growing cadre of loyal fans. Familiar faces in the crowd stoke their fires and drive them to work harder and longer. And the atmosphere of unity they foster between themselves and their audience stays true to the good-hearted, democratic politics they tout in their lyrics. If they have a good crowd - and they always do - The Furios can draw upon that energy to pull off the superhuman feats of strength needed to continue playing for up to four straight hours.
And after those ridiculously long sets they're there, in amongst the sweaty throng, fingers aching and throats raw, they're patting backs and handing out stickers.
» WRITTEN BY RACHEL SANDERS
CBC RADIO 3

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