Foals play first-ever LA gig

Foals played their first-ever Los Angeles gig last night (May 24), which culminated with frontman Yannis Philippakis stage-diving into the crowd.

The Oxford quintet drew a sold-out crowd to the Troubadour, even on a holiday weekend when many people typically leave town.

The band kicked off the night with the first two tracks from their debut album 'Antidotes'. The packed house responded enthusiastically, pogoing and dancing throughout the hour-long set.

Philippakis led the charge, and threw himself into the crowd before returning to the stage to bang on the drums for the final tracks, which included an extended jam of 'Mathletics' during the two-song encore.

"We were really looking forward to our first gig in LA," Philippakis told NME.COM after their set. "The people were really warm. I enjoyed jumping into the crowd, I'm just glad I didn't take anyone's face off."

The band will continue their tour of the US with shows up and down the west coast until the end of the week.

Foals played:

'The French Open'
'Cassius'
'Olympic Airways'
'Balloons'
'Heavy Water'
'Two Steps Twice'
'Hummer'
'Red Socks Pugie'
'Electric Bloom'
'Mathletics'

--By our Los Angeles staff.
Find out more about NME.

Foals tickets:

• Sep 7, 2008 at Carling Academy, Newcastle - Check availability
• Sep 27, 2008 at Civic Centre, Aylesbury - Check availability
• Sep 28, 2008 at University, Cardiff - Check availability

More Foals tickets