On paper this tour could be classed as one of
the best tours of the year as you have 4 awesome
bands tearing up the venues across the UK for
pretty much 4 weeks, you have the much loved Funeral
For A Friend headlining every show, you have the
extremely heavy hardcore Cancer Bats who play
every show like it’s their last giving 100%
each and every time, then you have the fast rising
In Case OF Fire who are a band that have the potential
to be extremely big within the next 12 months
and opening each show then you have the Welsh
poppy punks Attack! Attack, now that is four bands
that all play slightly different music but are
all really good on record as well as live.
However, I have to say that by the end of the
show I reached my conclusion and this tour is
nowhere near the best tour of the year due to
the fact that it wasn’t the best organised
tour that I have ever been to. Tonight’s
show at Birmingham Academy, the doors opened extremely
early at 6pm which was pretty odd for a Sunday
show, most Sunday shows at the Academy have normal
opening doors and the usual 11pm curfew but not
tonight. Attack! Attack! took to the stage 5 minutes
after the doors had opened and played a 20 minute
set, sadly due to the huge queue's out side of
the venue we missed the whole set, but they must
of had a hard but good job trying to please the
hundreds of Funeral For A Friend fans as they
are walking through the doors, what I do know
is they played 5 songs, but how did they go down
is a mystery to me.
5 Minutes after Attack! Attack! left the stage
it was time for the rising superstars In Case
Of Fire to take to the stage, once again we was
still stuck in the queue outside the venue trying
to get in and missed the whole of their 20 minute
set but I am pretty sure that there new rock stadium
style anthems had the power to take the roof of
the venue, the main question is do the Funeral
For A Friend fans appreciate this style of music?
 We finally got inside the venue with about 10minutes
to kill before the Cancer Bats came on, so we
looked around the venue checking out the merch
stalls whilst noticing that the downstairs of
the venue is really packed tonight due to the
fact that the upstairs isn’t open like it
is during most gigs at the Academy due to the
venue not being sold out. Soon after the Cancer
Bats take to the stage for a 30 minute long set
and straight away they unleashed their hardcore
punk rock crossed with a bit of metal sound upon
the Birmingham Academy crowd. Frontman Liam Cormier
was running across the stage for the duration
of the set screaming his lungs out and shaking
his head with his strange punk rock looking hair
cut flapping everywhere. The Cancer Bats played
songs from both their albums 'Birthing The Giant'
and 'Hail Destroyer' and it was the song 'Hail
Destroyer' that finished their set off. The front
few rows of the crowd seemed like they were loving
every minute of the Cancer Bats but if you looked
at people further back in the venue they were
just stood there with their arms folded probably
wondering what they are actually listening to,
nevertheless the Cancer Bats gave it their all
and they succeeded in converting some Funeral
For A Friend fans into fans of their own.
 Next up were the headliners Funeral For A Friend,
now all show, the kids had been teased with the
Funeral For A Freind 'Memory And Humanity' album
cover banner gracing the back of the stage during
each and every bands performance tonight, but
now the kids knew that the time was close for
Funeral For A Friend to take to the stage and
twenty minutes later the lights went down and
Funeral For A Friend headed on stage.
Funeral For A Friend shook things up from the
start by starting off with a song from their new
album 'Memory And Humanity' with the hope that
it would go down well with the crowd and they
would sing the song back to them word for word,
the song they started with was 'Constant Illuminations'
and it went down extremely well with the crowd,
with people screaming and singing along.
The set that Funeral For A Friend played was kind
of like a greatest hits set with quite a bit of
their new album thrown in as well, they played
a lot of old stuff that they admitted that they
haven’t played in a long time and this was
the material that generated the most screams from
the fans and it’s always a good thing for
the hardcore fans hearing old material being played
and it’s even better for the band hearing
such a warm welcome from the fans when the songs
are being played.
 Not much was played from the third Funeral For
A Freind album 'Tales Dont Tell themselves' which
makes you wonder if the band are actually proud
of that album or not, I know it got a bit of backlash
from some of the more hardcore fans when it was
released but it also gained the band a whole new
fan base, it seems odd that they didn’t
play much from this album especially considering
the one song they did play from it was their hit
single ''Into Oblivion (Reunion)' and it was the
song that went down the best with the crowd all
night.
The set list was full of strong songs such as
the old single 'Juneau', the new download only
come back single 'Waterfront Dance Club', the
new main single release 'Kicking And Screaming'
and many old classic Funeral For A Friend songs
such as 'She Drove Me To Daytime Television',
'Your Revolution is a Joke', 'Novella', and many
more, the band played through the songs really
well and the crowd seemed to love every minute
of it.
Overall Funeral For a Friend played a good show
the only downside was that the sound was a bit
poor depending on where you was standing in the
venue, now I’m sure this was down to the
venue not being fully sold out and the upstairs
being completely empty as the venue chose to keep
the upstairs closed due to however many tickets
weren’t sold. The crowd was a bit of a mix,
you had your hardcore Funeral For A Friend fans
who are now in there 20's and have been enjoying
the band since they were about 14 and you also
had your new generation of teenagers who had just
turned 14 or 15 and have just started going to
gigs, either way both sets of people seemed to
walk away quite pleased.
Cancer Bats - 3/5
Funeral For a Friend - 3/5
Review By Trigger
|
Funeral
For A Friend
