2013 marks the ten year anniversary since Funeral for a Friend’s debut album, Casually Dressed and in Deep Conversation was released and rumours were rife about what tonight would entail.
After Sean Smith of The Blackout had tweeted saying that Funeral for a Friend were going to be playing their first two EP’s at their Cardiff show (the date previous to London), the Electric Ballroom was buzzing off the hype. As the recognisable guitar riff of ‘10.45 Amsterdam Conversations’ began, everyone realised that the rumours had some truth in them and the room suddenly became a screaming chorus of energetic fans.
‘Juneau’, ‘The Art of American Football’ and ‘Red is the New Black’ followed, completing the first EP, Between Order and Model. Though with a fairly different line-up from when they started, the band can certainly still pack a punch live, with beastly breakdowns and clashing cymbals reminding us that they’ve still got a fair bit of hardcore inside them. To mix things up a bit they throw in material from latest album Conduit as well as the anthemic favourites from 2005’s Hours.
As it became more and more obvious we were nearing the end of the show, hopes were still held high for hearing tracks from Four Ways to Scream Your Name, despite vocalist Matt Davies saying “never trust a Welshman with a Twitter account.”
But then, distortion echoed around the room, followed by the intro guitar riff from ‘This Year’s Most Open Heartbreak’ and the crowd erupted in cheers, everyone jumping, air drumming to the song that sound tracked their teenage years. Funeral for a Friend completed the rest of Four Ways to Scream Your Name, ending the night on ‘Escape Artists Never Die’, a rarity for any FFAF show.
It’s tough for a band when many of the fans begin to care less about the newer material, but the tracks that brought Funeral for a Friend to the forefront still have so much worth and the fans are still just as passionate about them as they were ten years ago.
Funeral for a Friend played:
1. 10.45 Amsterdam Conversations
2. Juneau
3. The Art of American Football
4. Red is the New Black
5. Best Friends and Hospital Beds
6. Rookie of the Year
7. Bullet Theory
8. Front Row Seats to the End of the World
9. Sixteen
10. All The Rage
11. Nails
12. Death Comes to Us All
13. Roses for the Dead
14. High Castles
15. This Year's Most Open Heartbreak
16. She Drove Me to Daytime Television
17. Kiss & Make Up (All Bets Are Off)
18. Escape Artists Never Die
Below: Exclusive photos of Funeral For A Friend live at London's Electric Ballroom
