Frankie and the Witch Fingers live. Patronaat, Haarlem Saturday 29 November 2025

Photo: WdN-vdB

Dark and very wet but luckily not cold were the conditions when I got on my bike to cycle the circa ten minutes to Patronaat to go and see the Los Angeles psych rock band Frankie and the Witch Fingers. The support started so early, that I was still eating at the time.

When I walked in everything was set up with these very colourful cables on the stage and even yellow and blue coloured microphones. It looked quite special. During the show the cables seemed to change colour a little with the change of lightning. I'd never seen anything like it before.

My introduction to the band was through its last album, 'Trash Classic', but there are eight in total already. I heard a few familiar songs during the show but also a lot I'd never heard before or did not recognise. It didn't matter one bit. The band came on stage and went off and kept going at it until the very, very last note.

The start was impressive though. Over fast synth notes played by new member Jon Modaff, the other four played starts and stops that seemed to go on forever, in all sorts of variations, without missing a beat/chord/note. What a way to start a show! Very impressive. It was all led by a drummer who has the energy for a thousand shows in one. Nick Aguilar simply doesn't know how to stop playing, yet always falls back into the rhythm. There's so much power in his drumming that the band just has to follow. No one can let up for even a second. Aguilar impressed me the whole show long.

Photo: WdN-vdB

For the rest. Each song effortlessly melted into the next. Some without stopping. What they were singing about? I have no clue. At best a word could be picked out. Harmony vocals? I saw it, but heard it? Not really. Except for a "ballad" somewhere in between the set, it all just went on and on for circa 75 minutes. The storm only died down when the band left the stage, when all was said and done. No encore, as it wouldn't have added one iota to the whole presented. The European tour was over and the band can go home satisfied with their Haarlem show.

Finally, what to call this music? In the live setting, I can't tell you. There was a little of everything, like punk, trash, garage, something-core, etc., and yes, some psychedelia, at the moment the keyboard managed to get over the rest that is. Loudest that is the right word. Great fun to look, from a bit at the back for me. Not counting the insane trio The Forty Fives, the only louder show I've ever been was A Place To Bury Strangers. There were elements in the guitar swaths played that reminded me of that show, but it stopped there. The song was always present with Frankie and the Witch Fingers and that makes it a winning show. I was smiling the whole of the way home, rain or no rain.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght