Foals had the unfortunate timing of having to play in the middle of Saturday’s rain storm, and had to deal with inclement weather for the entirety of their set. Yet they still drew a big crowd to the Green Stage, and rewarded all those poncho-clad souls who braved the weather with a career-spanning set.

This Oxford outfit hasn’t been around all that long compared to some of the musical acts appearing at Fuji Rock 2013 – they’ve been together since 2005, and their first album came out in 2008. Yet they’ve developed quite a bit during that time, which was evident as they touched on tracks from across their catalog. They played a healthy amount of numbers from their first album, <em>Antidotes</em>, jittery numbers like “Balloons” and set-closer “Two Steps Twice.” These songs got big cheers, and highlighted the precise guitar playing and tight songwriting (along with yelpy vocals) that defined them early on. Those are borderline math-rock tracks, unlike the emotional gut punches of “Olympic Airways” and “Red Socks Pugie.” Yet all these songs were fast, no-frills affairs, which did their job of getting the crowd moving.

More interesting…and ultimately more appropriate for the Green Stage…were later cuts from 2010′s <em>Total Life Forever</em> and this year’s <em>Holy Fire</em>. Foals learned how to build a song up and wrench drama from their sound. Set-highlight “Spanish Sahara” did this especially well, opening with minimal guitar and drums, and subdued vocals courtesy of singer Yannis Philippakis. But they slowly developed the song until it hit a dizzying climax. They always looked to be in control – Philippakis went off the stage at one point, but even while playing guitar near the front of the audience he looked like a technician. But it was when they constructed something with a big pay-off did they really stand out.