Funeral for a Friend are in the grooveyard

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Perhaps it’s the split from a major label (they left Atlantic Records earlier this year) or the fact that their fourth album, Memory and Humanity, is also one of their finest. Whatever the reason, Funeral for a Friend were in the mood to celebrate.

"Are you all warmed up?" asked frontman Matthew Davies to a crowd who had sung every word of Juneau, a thunderous favourite from the band’s 2003 debut Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation.

Although he encouraged their vocal support throughout, Davies needed no assistance in making his voice heard. His serrated rasp was more than a match for the vaulting guitars of Kris Coombs-Roberts and Darran Smith, rumbling bass of Gavin Burrough and bludgeoning beats of Ryan Richards
Not that these Welsh dragons were all fire and brimstone. Newer songs such as Rules and Games proved that the group hadn’t lost their knack of writing a great pop hook.

You did wonder if Davies had lost his mind when he encouraged the crowd to make hooks of their own. "Imagine you’re holding an invisible bunch of grapes," he prompted in one of many humorous asides.

There were more serious moments, too. Your Revolution is a Joke, a stripped-down ballad from the band’s debut, was performed with Coombs-Roberts seated on a stool and a motionless Davies (and half the Forum) on vocals.

Ballads are grand but Funeral for a Friend were essentially here to rock. Launching into the aural assault of You can’t see the Forest for the Wolves, they sent a crowd of burly twentysomethings and emo kids into one of the most mismatched moshpits of all time. Thankfully, everyone still seemed to be enjoying themselves.
A drag on record but a dream on stage.

Funeral For A Friend
HMV Forum
Highgate Road, NW5 1JY