Funeral for a Friend’s return to the tour circuit saw a genre defying line-up, but they kept their Welsh roots to the fore in the line-up with fellow countrymen Attack Attack opening to a sold-out Spring and Airbrake.
Their Jimmy-Eat-World tinged emo brought a few cheers although the crackly guitars and singalong choruses ultimately were too samey, both on the night and in terms of too many bands that sound the same.
Portadown’s In Case Of Fire were always guaranteed rousing local support, but the band’s sub-Muse panderings took too long to get going, and it was crowd favourite Parallels that finally saw them warm up and begin to really engage with the packed front rows.
Their experience of touring with the likes of Biffy Clyro and Ash is beginning to pay off for the trio, but the use of samples between songs only breaks the flow of the set.
Toronto’s Cancer Bats have no problem with engaging the crowd – from the unpretentious tuning of their own gear on stage through to the manic arrival of singer Liam Cormier they knew which part of the crowd they were playing. And that was the part swirling in the mosh pit as they kicked off with Let It Pour.
Cormier’s commitment to the cause ran to literally joining the crowd, held aloft crowd surfing, and from the middle of the crush at the front. Highlights were mainly from their most recent new album, with Lucifer’s Rocking Chair prompting old style headbanging. Set closer and album title track Hail Destroyer kicked off a manic pit and mass chanting. What the younger fans made off it was beyond saying as they tried to make it to the front amid flailing bodies.
Funeral for a Friend are accomplished performers; and they have been open about the sometimes dark journey that dogged periods of their career
Tonight the darkness was dispelled in what was a performance that owed as much to re-connecting with fans as to airing tracks off new album, Memory and Humanity.
From which there were a precious few – highlight being Maybe I Am.
This though, was as much about giving fans a tour through the back catalogue – reminding them why they became fans and why the band enjoy hitting the stage even in the darkest of times.
Matt Davies clearly was enjoying himself on stage in a well paced that ranged from the impassioned Juneau through the plaintive Your Revolution Is A Joke to hitting the audience with full-on version’s of She Drove Me To Daytime Television, and Novella.
They have shrugged off the emo/scremo tag, shrugged off the lighter moments off their last album to morph into a simply damn fine hard rock band; and a band that may be able to retain its fanbase when many contemporaries have fallen by the wayside.
As they left the stage with a powerful version of Escape Artists Never Die, Funeral for A Friend left contented and left the Belfast crowd eager for the Welsh band’s return.
Showing posts with label Funeral for A Friend. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Funeral for A Friend. Show all posts
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Wednesday night in Belfast
They've been dubbed screamo, emo and even post-hardcore pop (seriously!) but as they move into a mature phase in their writing and performing Funeral for a Friend are proving that they are simply a damn good hard rock band.
Tonight they play at the Spring and Airbrake. Support comes from another genre-defying act, Cancer Bats, who have already played Belfast recently. Cancer Bats are one of the most underrated acts on the circuit at the moment, and their Hail Destroyer album could be the breakthrough platter they deserve.
Also on the line-up are Portadown's In Case of Fire and Attack Attack!
Tonight they play at the Spring and Airbrake. Support comes from another genre-defying act, Cancer Bats, who have already played Belfast recently. Cancer Bats are one of the most underrated acts on the circuit at the moment, and their Hail Destroyer album could be the breakthrough platter they deserve.
Also on the line-up are Portadown's In Case of Fire and Attack Attack!
Monday, October 13, 2008
Busy week of hard rock and metal ahead!
As if Saturday's awesome double bill of metal, when Dragonforce and Turisas laid waste to the crowd at the Mandella Hall, wasn't enough there's a helluva busy week of hard rock and metal ahead!
Tomorrow (Tuesday) Raging Speedhorn, backed by local noisenicks Residual Effect and Stand-Up Guy, blast the Bunkers.
On Wednesday, Funeral for a Friend (new darker, harder album out today), Cancer Bats, In Case of Fire, and Attack Attack are at the Spring and Airbrake.
And on Thursday The Answer play the same venue before heading off to support AC/DC on their Black Ice US tour!
Tomorrow (Tuesday) Raging Speedhorn, backed by local noisenicks Residual Effect and Stand-Up Guy, blast the Bunkers.
On Wednesday, Funeral for a Friend (new darker, harder album out today), Cancer Bats, In Case of Fire, and Attack Attack are at the Spring and Airbrake.
And on Thursday The Answer play the same venue before heading off to support AC/DC on their Black Ice US tour!
Monday, August 11, 2008
FFAF supports confirmed
As predicted earlier the support slots for Funeral for a Friend on 15th October at The Spring and Airbrake have been confirmed as Cancer Bats, In Case of Fire and Attack Attack.
Sounds like a competitive line-up to say the least...odds being laid already as to who will blow whom off the stage...
Sounds like a competitive line-up to say the least...odds being laid already as to who will blow whom off the stage...
Friday, July 04, 2008
Funereal support
It won't be wake when Funeral for A Friend play Belfast in October...as well as local hopefuls In Case of Fire playing support Cancer Bats will be on the line-up. All together now...HAIL DESTROYER!
Thursday, July 03, 2008
FFAF at S&A
Funeral For A Friend have confirmed another visit to Belfast. The Welsh five piece play on October 15th at the Spring and Airbrake, tickets £15.
Here's the blurb courtesy of Dino and the team at CDC Leisure, which captures the mood of the band when they released their last album, and just before their last Belfast date, at which it has to be said they emerged from teeny emo, screamo widdliness into a proper hard rock act. Come October, hopefully that transition will be complete!
In any life, the end of adolescence and the coming to terms with adulthood is a cataclysmic time. But imagine vaulting that hurdle while a member of a rock n roll group skyrocketing their way to fame, living through and adjusting to these changes in the public spotlight.
Imagine trying to learn from your mistakes with an ever-growing army of rabid fans hanging on your every gesture, attempting to ride out both the emotional tsunami and some truly life-altering experiences.
Since their inception just three years ago, gale-force Welsh rockers Funeral For A Friend have experienced more extraordinary highs and lows than most people will go though in their entire existence.
In the UK, the band have been nothing less than a phenomenon, scoring three Top 20 singles, a gold-certified debut album, headlining the second stage of the world famous Reading/Leeds Festival and winning Kerrang!'s Best Newcomer award.
In the States, the band has received reams of critical praise while growing their ever-increasing fanbase via tours alongside such like-minded outfits as Linkin Park, Taking Back Sunday, Coheed & Cambria, From Autumn To Ashes and Atreyu.
All of which can be quite a headfuck, especially if you factor in the twenty-something tumult as well."HOURS," Funeral For A Friend's eagerly anticipated second Atlantic Records release, tells the story of that headfuck, passionately essaying the vulnerability of young adulthood via such potent tracks as the album's first single, "Streetcar."
Following on the heels of 2003's breakthrough label debut, "CASUALLY DRESSED & DEEP IN CONVERSATION," Funeral For A Friend have carefully cast a sound by turns heavier and softer than before, with the band's dual impulses for metallic riffage and melodic bloom no longer at odds with each other.
"We wanted to make a record that had no sense of compromise," adds guitarist Kris Coombs-Roberts. "Something people would either really love or hate, that no one would feel "wishy-washy" about. There's no middle ground."For this purpose, the band left their native South Wales for Seattle, Washington, where they lived for two months recording "HOURS" with renowned hard rock producer Terry Date (famed for his work with Soundgarden, Pantera and Deftones among others).
The two months of sessions working at both the legendary Bad Animals studio, and Pearl Jam's own, personally built studio was the longest the band had stayed in one place for as long as they could remember.
They put down roots as deep as they could, digging inside of themselves for the music that would make up "HOURS.""To be honest, we didn't see all that much of Seattle," drummer Ryan Richards notes.
"We were so excited about the process of making the record, we stayed in the studios most days and nights.""We knew we had to make a landmark record," adds bassist Gareth Davies.
"It had to be better than anything we'd done before."While the band was rightly proud of the acclaimed "CASUALLY DRESSED & DEEP IN CONVERSATION," they nonetheless viewed it as somewhat compromised, compiling previously released singles and only a handful of new tracks.
They were determined that "HOURS" would be a proper album of pace, structure, mood and sentiment. It would reflect the distance Funeral For A Friend had come as both musicians and as songwriters.
The bludgeoning hardcore assault was finessed, strengthened; the melodies were stronger, stickier, nagging and unforgettable. Matt Davies' lyric sheet rang the changes further: deeper, darker, more mature, his words navigating the same emotional icebergs he and the band had encountered over the past year.
"The album is all about the idea that nobody's perfect, "he reflects, "That perfection doesn't exist. That nothing is that well-built."
Though Funeral For A Friend is a true group, stronger than the sum of their parts, it was Matt in particular who felt the pressures of the preceding months. As the group's focal point, he became the fulcrum and sustained the deepest wounds, learned the hardest lessons, on behalf of the band.
There were points where his voice suffered, where his health as a whole suffered. There was a stay in the hospital."My body was shutting down," Davies recalls. "was skeletal, fucked up. I thought, "All this pain, should I just go away? Should I just croak it?" But then I realized I've got a lot of things to look forward to. I've got to get better, get my ass moving!"Those feelings inform "HOURS," from its deeply personal lyrics to its emotionally charged sonic power. While "Monster's Ball" and "At The End Of Nothing" are fraught with a ferocious ferocity that is, quite frankly, breathtaking in its force and fervor, songs like "Recovery" and "Hospitality" showcase the band's melodic depth and mounting maturity.
Working with the skilled Terry Date enabled FFAF to capture their gifts for multi-faceted songcraft while polishing the diamond-precise crunch of their pulverizing live performances.
"People are going that the emo-screamo tag that was put on us really doesn't fit," points out guitarist Darran Smith.
"That's not what we are. We're a rock band, and with the diversity of this album, we show that there are a lot more strings to our bow."The heartfelt noise of "HOURS" makes it plain that, for Funeral For A Friend, their hard won experiences has endowed the band with a strength and self-confidence that will see them through the triumphs and the trials of the rest of their lives. Funeral For A Friend has grown up, and it suits them fine.
www.ffaf.co.uk/
www.myspace.com/funeralforafriend
Here's the blurb courtesy of Dino and the team at CDC Leisure, which captures the mood of the band when they released their last album, and just before their last Belfast date, at which it has to be said they emerged from teeny emo, screamo widdliness into a proper hard rock act. Come October, hopefully that transition will be complete!
In any life, the end of adolescence and the coming to terms with adulthood is a cataclysmic time. But imagine vaulting that hurdle while a member of a rock n roll group skyrocketing their way to fame, living through and adjusting to these changes in the public spotlight.
Imagine trying to learn from your mistakes with an ever-growing army of rabid fans hanging on your every gesture, attempting to ride out both the emotional tsunami and some truly life-altering experiences.
Since their inception just three years ago, gale-force Welsh rockers Funeral For A Friend have experienced more extraordinary highs and lows than most people will go though in their entire existence.
In the UK, the band have been nothing less than a phenomenon, scoring three Top 20 singles, a gold-certified debut album, headlining the second stage of the world famous Reading/Leeds Festival and winning Kerrang!'s Best Newcomer award.
In the States, the band has received reams of critical praise while growing their ever-increasing fanbase via tours alongside such like-minded outfits as Linkin Park, Taking Back Sunday, Coheed & Cambria, From Autumn To Ashes and Atreyu.
All of which can be quite a headfuck, especially if you factor in the twenty-something tumult as well."HOURS," Funeral For A Friend's eagerly anticipated second Atlantic Records release, tells the story of that headfuck, passionately essaying the vulnerability of young adulthood via such potent tracks as the album's first single, "Streetcar."
Following on the heels of 2003's breakthrough label debut, "CASUALLY DRESSED & DEEP IN CONVERSATION," Funeral For A Friend have carefully cast a sound by turns heavier and softer than before, with the band's dual impulses for metallic riffage and melodic bloom no longer at odds with each other.
"We wanted to make a record that had no sense of compromise," adds guitarist Kris Coombs-Roberts. "Something people would either really love or hate, that no one would feel "wishy-washy" about. There's no middle ground."For this purpose, the band left their native South Wales for Seattle, Washington, where they lived for two months recording "HOURS" with renowned hard rock producer Terry Date (famed for his work with Soundgarden, Pantera and Deftones among others).
The two months of sessions working at both the legendary Bad Animals studio, and Pearl Jam's own, personally built studio was the longest the band had stayed in one place for as long as they could remember.
They put down roots as deep as they could, digging inside of themselves for the music that would make up "HOURS.""To be honest, we didn't see all that much of Seattle," drummer Ryan Richards notes.
"We were so excited about the process of making the record, we stayed in the studios most days and nights.""We knew we had to make a landmark record," adds bassist Gareth Davies.
"It had to be better than anything we'd done before."While the band was rightly proud of the acclaimed "CASUALLY DRESSED & DEEP IN CONVERSATION," they nonetheless viewed it as somewhat compromised, compiling previously released singles and only a handful of new tracks.
They were determined that "HOURS" would be a proper album of pace, structure, mood and sentiment. It would reflect the distance Funeral For A Friend had come as both musicians and as songwriters.
The bludgeoning hardcore assault was finessed, strengthened; the melodies were stronger, stickier, nagging and unforgettable. Matt Davies' lyric sheet rang the changes further: deeper, darker, more mature, his words navigating the same emotional icebergs he and the band had encountered over the past year.
"The album is all about the idea that nobody's perfect, "he reflects, "That perfection doesn't exist. That nothing is that well-built."
Though Funeral For A Friend is a true group, stronger than the sum of their parts, it was Matt in particular who felt the pressures of the preceding months. As the group's focal point, he became the fulcrum and sustained the deepest wounds, learned the hardest lessons, on behalf of the band.
There were points where his voice suffered, where his health as a whole suffered. There was a stay in the hospital."My body was shutting down," Davies recalls. "was skeletal, fucked up. I thought, "All this pain, should I just go away? Should I just croak it?" But then I realized I've got a lot of things to look forward to. I've got to get better, get my ass moving!"Those feelings inform "HOURS," from its deeply personal lyrics to its emotionally charged sonic power. While "Monster's Ball" and "At The End Of Nothing" are fraught with a ferocious ferocity that is, quite frankly, breathtaking in its force and fervor, songs like "Recovery" and "Hospitality" showcase the band's melodic depth and mounting maturity.
Working with the skilled Terry Date enabled FFAF to capture their gifts for multi-faceted songcraft while polishing the diamond-precise crunch of their pulverizing live performances.
"People are going that the emo-screamo tag that was put on us really doesn't fit," points out guitarist Darran Smith.
"That's not what we are. We're a rock band, and with the diversity of this album, we show that there are a lot more strings to our bow."The heartfelt noise of "HOURS" makes it plain that, for Funeral For A Friend, their hard won experiences has endowed the band with a strength and self-confidence that will see them through the triumphs and the trials of the rest of their lives. Funeral For A Friend has grown up, and it suits them fine.
www.ffaf.co.uk/
www.myspace.com/funeralforafriend
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