Tim Harrington, as has been oft-noted, is an incendiary showboat: throughout Les Savy Fav's live show he pinwheels, flops, spits, flits, and strips, yowling all the while into a microphone attached to what must be sixty feet of cable. In other words, he is a consummate showman, and his presence alone was enough to differentiate his band from the preceding Dodos and Big Sleep, both of whom were competent (ill-served by the TLA's policy of mixing the vocals way too low) but seemingly disengaged; it probably didn't help that at least two-thirds of the crowd didn't show up until the headliners were about to go on. Still, both opening acts placed the emphasis on the indie, whereas LSF focused on the rock portion of the equation.
There was beer and water but no peanut butter, blood, vomit, or any other fluid of dubious provenance, so I guess you could call Harrington restrained; at one point he did come out dressed like "Stevie Nicks", according to him. The set-list included "The Sweat Descends" and "We'll Make a Lover of You", but beyond that it was impossible for me to discern, not that this was a barrier to enjoyment. Form, in this instance, is function.
