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Once again, lots of Santa Barbara music-lovers were AWOL on Sunday when the Fruit Bats<\/strong><\/a> and Parson Red Heads<\/strong> put on one of the best shows Santa Barbara has seen this year (saying much) courtesy of Club Mercy<\/strong><\/a> and the New Noise Festival<\/strong>.\u00a0 As anticipated, the Fruit Bats brought their high-energy, pop-melodic phantasmagoria to Soho, and the appreciative (albeit diminutive) crowd went batty.\u00a0 Those in doubt before the show are now doubtless.\u00a0 The Fruit Bats are one of America’s best live bands and Chicago-based songwriter\/leader, Eric Johnson<\/strong>, continues to add to his burgeoning song-chest as one of America’s premier new-generation singer-songwriters (along with Taylor Goldsmith <\/strong>from Dawes, Jim James<\/strong>, the National boys<\/strong>, Conor Oberst<\/strong> and a few select others).<\/p>\n You have simply got to catch this band live.\u00a0 Passion and precision rarely coincide, but Eric Johnson and the Fruit Bats provide exactly that.\u00a0 At Soho there were pop stars converging.\u00a0 The first part of the band’s set consisted mostly of songs off of their worthy new album, “Tripper”<\/strong> (more on this new concept album another time), including You\u2019re Too Weird<\/strong><\/em>, Tony The Tripper, Tangie and Ray,<\/strong><\/em> and Heart Like an Orange.<\/strong><\/em> Johnson then alerted the crowd that the remaining songs would be “older and progressively older,” and the remaining set consisted of pop-gems predominantly from their last album, the fantastic ’70s-influenced, “The Ruminant Band<\/strong>” and and from “Spelled in Bones.”<\/strong> Highlights included Lives of Crime, <\/strong><\/em>(the Marshall Tucker Band-sounding) Feather Bed,<\/strong><\/em> (preposterously jaunty) Being on Our Own, Legs of Bees<\/strong><\/em>, Primitive Man, When You Love Somebody <\/strong><\/em>(of course; check the Soho video below), and a stunningly beautiful solo rendition by Johnson of Singing Joy To The World<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 The band closed out the night with a ridiculously rousing rendition of The Ruminant Band<\/strong><\/em> (with some more Marshall Tucker\/Allmans guitar bits).<\/p>\n The bottom line is that when you combine Johnson’s pop-hooky songwriting, sweet high-register voice and friendly Midwestern-mien, with the superb playing and harmony vocals of the other Bats, you can’t help but be won over.\u00a0 Our faces ached from smiling after the show.<\/p>\n Fortunately for the slackers that missed the show, the good folks at NYCtaper recorded the Fruit Bats’ very-similar recent set at the Bowery, and you can listen\/download the set HERE<\/a> (if you do nothing else check out Johnson’s solo version of Singing Joy to the World)<\/em>. <\/strong>As usual, the quality by Nyctaper<\/strong> is high and they had this to say about the particulars: <\/strong>“I recorded this set with a soundboard feed provided by the Fruit Bats\u2019 sound engineer, together with DPA microphones. \u00a0 The results are, as usual with Bowery, excellent. \u00a0Enjoy!”\u00a0 We did!<\/p>\n And below check out the band performing\u00a0 When You Love Somebody<\/strong><\/em> at Soho (thanks to Oulalie<\/strong><\/a>), <\/strong><\/em>then My Unusual Friend <\/strong><\/em>and Johnson’s solo (acoustic guitar as opposed to the shimmering, reverbified electric at Soho) Singing Joy to the World<\/strong><\/em>, and finally, the closer: The Ruminant Band<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n