I’m in Love With Fievel is Glaque and I Don’t Care Who Knows it!
June 30, 2025 - NYC, New York
On Monday, June 30, Fievel is Glauque played two smashingly maximalist and totally jazzy sold out shows to devoted crowds at Night Club 101 in the East Village. The duo, composed of Zach Phillips and Ma Clément, were joined on stage by five other musicians, including front runner André Sacalxot, who switched back and forth between alto sax and flute throughout the show.
I was quite charmed by the venue, the night, and the band before they even stepped out on stage. When I arrived, Flanafi was mid opening set. Flanafi, aka Simon Martinez, set the tone with his psychedelic musings accompanied by rhythmic beats created through strange objects. Maybe a children's toy? A group slowly formed in the main section of the venue to listen. By the time Martinez wrapped, the room was buzzing with whispers of anticipation.
After a brief pause and test of the lights, it was time for FIG to take the stage for their second show of the evening. Phillips and Clément began by addressing the audience in a way that made my heart instantly melt. The pair apparently first met in 2018 in Brussels, where Zach was staying with a friend and working on music while vacationing. In a strange turn of events, he hit his head on a metal pole, and his concerned friend called a nursing student he knew who was, yup, Ma. The two have been working together creatively ever since.
From Zach’s first bashful words to the crowd, you get the sense that things in this band are sort of haphazardly tossed together by some very intelligent individuals who love music and everything sort of ends up landing exactly the way its meant to. The crowd giggled at each and every one of Zach’s jokes and looked longingly towards Ma. They floated between French and English in a mesmerizing, improvised dialect. You could tell that at moments the short and sweet songs did not go the way that the band had intended, but they seemed open to the positive feedback of the crowd and took note of their accidental successes. They played a lot of new content. All very quick, dense, upbeat, and jazzy. In between all the newness, the band found time for my personal favorite, “Sweet Tooth.”
I’m excited to see how Monday night’s new material evolves. Fievel is Glaque is known for recording at lightning speed, often finishing albums in just a few days, and this performance offered a glimpse into their live refinement process.
Their shows felt like a joyful collision of chaos and precision, full of humor, warmth, and wild creativity. If you get the chance to see them live, you might just witness the birth of their next great record.
