Funeral For A Friend 31/10/2008 at Portsmouth Pyramids
With three support acts, Funeral For a Friend’s Halloween-night gig at the Pyramids looked to be a bit of a rock marathon. Pop-punk newbies Attack Attack kicked off the night followed by Northern Irish rockers, In Case Of Fire. Both gave exciting performances before Cancer Bats came on to really warm up the crowd. In full Halloween dress, the band really impressed, frontman Liam Cormier gave a hugely energetic performance, thrashing around the stage with true hardcore punk swagger.
© Laura Callan
Having seen Funeral For A Friend live on their past few albums, I knew I was in for a good show; the new album Memory and Humanity is a very good offering slightly reminiscent of their more screamo beginnings, unlike their arguably lighter 2007 album, Tales Don’t Tell Themselves.
Dressed far more casually than their predecessors, FFAF took to the stage with a roar from their eagerly waiting fans and played a succession of old crowd-pleasers and new material.
Singer Matt Davies kept it political sporting a T-Shirt bearing the face of presidential candidate Barack Obama, but was clearly looking to have a good time, joking with the crowd throughout the set. While the rest of the band were drinking bottles of beer, Davies sipped from a flask of ‘tea’, leading the crowd to call for “Tea! Tea! Tea!” Davies then enticed the whole venue into a sing-along of Mr T’s “Mother”, exclaiming “That’s the only T you’re gonna get!”
© Laura Callan
In true Halloween spirit a couple of diehard fans dressed up as the male and female heroes of album cover Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation, and were brought up on stage as FFAF slowed it down with “Your Revolution Is A Joke”. The tempo was soon built up again, with Davies calling for a circle pit to new album track “You Can’t See The Forest For The Wolves”.
After a lengthy show the band departed the stage, but came back for an encore of the eternal crowd-pleaser “Escape Artists Never Die”, sending the crowd into a moshing, circle-pitting, kicking, screaming frenzy.
Playing live Funeral For A Friend give a fun and lively performance, playing their best anthems from past and present albums and giving the crowd what they want. They have arguably become more emo than screamo over the years, but still offer up great music, and even better live performances.
© Laura Callan
