Live: Funeral For A Friend in Birmingham
It has been almost a year since I last saw Funeral For A Friend, on their final tour of their very successful second album Hours, at the very same venue I saw the band on their first tour of their new album Tales Don’t Tell Themselves. The Welsh five piece have not lost any of their energy or passion for a live performance, as they once again blew away Birmingham Academy.
Support act: The Receiving End Of Sirens
Although a relatively unknown quantity, this isn’t the first time The Receiving End Of Sirens have played in Birmingham, nor the first time that I have seen them. They were part of the bill at the Give It A Name festival that took place at Birmingham NIA and Earls Court the previous month. They must have been better than I had originally given credit for, because I found myself remembering songs and riffs! This was a confident performance, suiting their role well as openers.
Funeral For A Friend
It is never easy for bands to find the right balance between old, oldest and new material; FFAF blended well between their three albums Casually Dressed and Deep in Conversation, Hours and Tales Don’t Tell Themselves. They opened with the new single Into Oblivion (Reunion), a song that has received plenty of airplay on TV and radio, and the first track on the new album, making for a raucous start. All The Rage followed this, a very fast, very loud, very moshable song from Hours. To complete the package of all three albums, Juneau came next, an absolute classic for FFAF fans.
Throughout, Matt Davies and co conducted the crowd through old and new, highlights including the admirable performances of new songs Walk Away, Out Of Reach, Great Wide Open, Raise The Sail and the final song before the encore, The Sweetest Wave. Roses For The Dead was highlighted by Matt as the most important song he’s ever wrote, History is an epic live song with the traditional two-fingered salute from the crowd and classics Bullet Theory and She Drove Me To Daytime Television were received well by the rowdy crowd.
FFAFs performance does much to inspire the audience to enjoy the gig to the fullest, which at a rock show means lots of jumping, moshing and shouting! At one point I thought I was going to pass out, so I made my way from front to back after History for water, with just enough time to get back to the front for the 2 song encore. There were only 2 songs that could possibly follow, Streetcar and the traditional finishing song Escape Artists Never Die, a great live song!
Verdict: My third visit to Birmingham Academy, the venue looked completely packed to the 2700 capacity. This made for a hot, sweaty stall floor! It was also the third time seeing FFAF, and my apatite for more still hasn’t gone away. Just one of my favourite live bands and deserving of the success they’re getting in the wake of their new album.