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Photos, Live Review: Funeral For A Friend @ Birmingham Academy

31st October 2008 | by Aidan Williamson

A Sunday night at the Birmingham Academy is an early night. Headlining Welsh band Funeral for a Friend start their show at roughly the time around the country that students are starting to contemplate leaving their beds. Half-eight to the rest of us.

Having suffered a breakdown the night before, whether Canadian act Cancer Bats would be able to make an appearance was very much up in the air. Problems were eventually solved though and the hardcore-rock act showed up to the ball to unleash their fierce brand of punk upon crowd here present. With hair flailing throughout the entire stage it created a sort of barrier, or curtain if you will between the stage and the rest of humanity. So in a way, Cancer Bats were a lot like the Soviet empire. Finishing their set will blistering anthem "Hail Destroyer" this band would have been seriously out of place had they toured with Funeral just a year ago. As it was though, the headliners had a surprise in store.

"We've loving this tour," proclaimed FFAF front-man Matt Davies, likely inserting seven swear words into just that small sentence. "This tour is giving us a chance to play songs which we haven't in a while." It was quickly apparent what the band meant, their attitude to their catalogue of songs was roughly equivalent to that of their fans. Drawing just one song from their previous album "Tales Don't Tell Themselves" (Into Oblivion), the band clearly shared the disdain of their fans in that regard. Instead, the set list was weighted heavily in favour of earlier material with their E.Ps, ("This Year's Most Open Heartbreak") Casually Dressed (Juno, Your Revolution is a Joke, Novella, She Drove Me to Daytime Television, Escape Artists Never Die) and Hours (History, Streetcar, Roses for the Dead) all making appearances.

Songs drawn from latest album "Memory and Humanity" also figured hard, nestling snugly amidst the rest of their work. A quick breather was instigated to introduce new bass player Gavin Burrough and a few more for Davies to offend some more small children.

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