Funeral For A Friend – Manchester Academy 3 – June 30th 2008
Support – New Device, In Case Of Fire

The upstairs room of this particular Manchester University Union is a smaller venue than you would find at your usual FFAF gig and within 10 minutes of doors opening there is already a crowd forming at the front of the barrier.
As London band New Device hit the incredibly small stage (due to a covered up drum kit in the centre) the crowd are quiet and uninterested.
The singer, who seems overly confident and insists on taking his top off to reveal a very sweaty six pack, tries his hardest to create excitement by jumping from the stage and singing, rather well, for the majority of the set whilst lent over the barrier before finally climbing an amp for the last song.

In Case Of Fire were better received by the crowd who headed towards the front of the venue as the band emerged on stage. They played their set with little banter towards the crowd other than to state the song names. With a large instrumental, along with synchronised lighting at the back of the stage which almost blinded the crowd, they created excitement and energy ready for the headline band.

Funeral For A Friend entered the stage as the crowd sang the epic song We Are The Champions that played over the PA system, something that had happened on the last 3 tours. Immediately kicking into their set list, eager to get back into the comforts of performing live after being away for almost 7 months recording their new album, the crowd went insane.
Now at a typical Funeral For A Friend gig, Matthew (singer) would always kindly remind the crowd to take care of one another, especially those in the pit, but tonight no such message came unfortunately. The pit was full of guys, many of them drunk, who seemed delighted whenever they managed to knock someone else to the floor and kick them whilst they’re down, literally. This brought a downer to the night early on and many fans made their way to the back of the venue to watch in peace.
The set list consisted of a range of songs from the band’s 3 EP’s and 3 albums including the very first song they ever wrote as a band, 10.45 Amsterdam Conversations, which seemed to prove who in the crowd had been there from the start (far less than those who had claimed just one song previous to that when Gareth asked who had attended their very first UK tour all those years back… about 6 to be precise).
New song, Waterfront Dance Club (their single to be released via free download later this month), was a huge hit amongst the crowd as they sang/screamed every single word back 10 times louder than the band themselves. Two more new songs from the upcoming album, that was recently announced is titled Memory and Humanity, were played to the crowd that night, Beneath The Burning Tree (double A-side to Waterfront Dance Club) and Can’t See The Forest For The Wolves, both received with excitement by the crowd.
A surprise oldy in the set list was Storytelling from their first album, Casually Dressed And Deep In Conversation, Matthew claiming they hadn’t performed it live for at least 2 years.
Other songs included, Roses For The Dead, Streetcar, Out Of Reach (which Matthew managed to royally fuck up the first verse and chorus by singing the wrong words at the wrong time, later blamed on his age - 27), Juneau, History and as with pretty much every Funeral For A Friend show over the past few years, they ended on the epic Escape Artists Never Die, allowing Matthew to leave the stage for the rest of the band to play their electrifying instrumental before finally leaving the stage for themselves for a well earned rest.
Over all this was an amazing welcome back for the boys from Wales and a taste of what’s to come on their full UK tour in October to coincide with the release of their next album.