“What a weird duo,” said my friend and roommate, Jewel, when talking about the American pop duo band, FRENSHIP. We had recently seen them play live on October 19th at the Foundry; a 450-capacity venue meant for up and coming artists which is attached to the larger concert space, The Fillmore. And it would’ve been an understatement to say that we would have lasting memories of that night.
I was introduced to their music well over a year ago with the song “1000 Nights”, a catchy upbeat song about fruitless endeavors (right up my alley!). I must’ve liked the song on Pandora (I know, I know, come at me Spotify fans) and was quickly bombarded with many of their other songs. When Jewel saw that FRENSHIP was playing in Philly we jumped at the chance to see the relatively unknown band that might one day become much more popular. It was the first time I had gone to such a small concert with only standing space. FRENSHIP must have only sold around 75 tickets, so the venue was spacious and allowed the crowd to have a certain amount of intimacy with those on the stage.
Our night began with parking at a lot that I had researched and prepaid for. In retrospect I’m not sure this was the best choice. The parking lot was a short walk to the venue, but anyone who has been to Philly knows that you can feel safe on one road only to be incredibly wary on the next. The GPS took us on a walk down this dark, curvy, isolated road to the Foundry. We saw this weird construction worker who stood in the middle of a driveway in the dark just staring at us. Further down this winding road there was free street parking with people obviously going to the Fillmore or surrounding venues. On the way back from the concert we decided to skirt around and take more of a main road to escape the odd construction workers. Except, this more populated road had the sidewalk space under construction which meant there was a period where we were running on the side of the road. What a weird duo we must’ve made.
When we finally arrived at the venue they scanned our e-tickets, looked at our IDs and ran a metal detector over us. The Foundry was a clean and open space with a small stage at the front, a bar in the middle, and a couple leather couches at the back. The opener for FRENSHIP was BIZZY, a young woman I had never heard of before. The one song that we really liked by her was called “Just Yet”. Lots of her songs talked about breakups and relationships which isn’t really my jam, but even for the small crowd she was still really enthusiastic and had a great stage presence.
Before FRENSHIP came on they took away the drum set which BIZZY also hadn’t used. For the first song they played, one of their mics didn’t work. They stopped mid-song to fix that and other sound feedback that had also been happening during BIZZY’s set. Live Nation, their touring and operations company, seemed to struggle with their equipment (this is obviously from my standpoint as a nonprofessional). The duo was noticeably confused and thrown off by the tech problems. After they finished their opening song they announced that they had recently fired their new drummer after him being on the payroll for less than 24 hours (this continued to be a running joke throughout the concert as members of the audience offered to drum for the band despite not knowing how to play). I kept waiting for the two members of FRENSHIP to introduce themselves, but oddly enough went the entire concert without their names. I could’ve looked them up during the songs of course, but that would’ve taken away from the added mystery of guessing their names. As Jewel and I were driving home from the venue we found out their names were James Sutherland (the one with long auburn hair) and Brett Hite (who I think looks like a younger version of J.K. Simmons from the Farmers Insurance commercials. Jewel loosely agrees).
Despite these minor issues, I had an overall positive and fun time at the concert. James and Brett have a great dynamic and banter on stage. And even without the introduction to the band, it was quite obvious why they are called FRENSHIP. They were willing to try new things on stage and at one point said they were even practicing this very song backstage before they came out. There was an authenticity that I haven’t experienced at larger concerts; you could tell that the duo loved to be on stage, performing and playing their music.
I knew nearly every single song that they played except two new ones from their new extended play album, Base Camp. Their songs all have catchy choruses that are memorable and easy to sing along to without knowing them beforehand. FRENSHIP has been making music for ten years now so they have quite a repertoire of songs. They played some of their oldest songs like “Knives” and new ones such as “Lover or an Enemy” (one of my new favorites). One of the ladies in the front center of the first row kept yelling out for them to play “Mi Amor” which they initially refused as it was not on their set list. At her insistence, Brett finally caved and they played “Mi Amor” despite saying they didn’t know how to play it acoustic and without a drummer. They absolutely smashed it. Brett was the one who insisted they give the crowd two additional songs alongside the unscheduled “Mi Amor”. It seemed that he might have gone on all night if James hadn’t stopped him.
These three songs that were played without the electro pop beats were my favorites of the night. I don’t particularly remember what the other two songs were, I don’t think that was what mattered, I just know that these songs felt different than their spotify versions. It was a more real and visceral experience than their regular scheduled program. These were spontaneous and appeared more passionate and unique. It was just Brett and James and their guitars. For the first time their voices weren’t mixed in and overshadowed by the background music and this allowed them to really shine through.
I look forward to following the rising career of the duo. I hope they keep their authenticity, their wisecracks and their friendship. They were a weird duo, but not because they didn’t work, but because against all odds their concert was probably one of the best that I have attended. I think in the end every single one of us is a part of a weird friendship duo that just works and if you can’t make good music then maybe just stick to attending a FRENSHIP concert instead.
Featured Image by Jewel Miller
