Live Review

Funeral For A Friend – King Tut’s, Glasgow

• 21st Mar 2011

There was a near capacity audience inside King Tut’s for a three band bill headlined by Welsh rockers Funeral For A Friend. The lively Sunday night crowd were well entertained with a night of hard and heavy rock music.

The night was opened by another Welsh band, Tiger Please. On their previous visit to Glasgow they had topped the bill, but this time it was just a too short set in support of their countrymen. Tiger Please have a solid two guitar sound and are ably led by frontman singer Leon Stanford, whose deep voice was strong throughout. And they also showed on the slower new song Human that there is a subtlety to their music at times.

Second support Rise To Remain, a five piece London based metal band didn’t show the same finesse in their slightly longer set. The screamed lyrics and heavy guitars over pounding bass and drums were lightened only by the occasional fine guitar solo. Much of the crowd seemed to enjoy their music though.

From the moment that Funeral For A Friend burst onto the stage it was clear that singer Matthew Davies-Kreye was in charge of proceedings. His lively banter and easy rapport with his fans verged on comedy at times but when the music started he was all business.

And he used all of the area available to him, running and dancing around the stage and perching precariously on the barrier that only just separated him from the fans. The single Sixteen was an early high point of the set, a passionate vocal delivery prompting a forest of pumping fists as the crowd sang along.

FFAF are in the midst of a seventeen date UK tour to promote the fifth studio album, Welcome Home Armageddon, from which several songs were played including the excellent Aftertaste and Man Alive. There were older songs from previous albums mixed in too, including fan favourite The End Of Nothing.

The pace was frenetic throughout, as the twin guitars of Kris Coombs-Roberts and Gavin Burrough traded power chords and drummer Ryan Richards set a steady beat while also performing screamed vocals on several songs. Bassist Richard Boucher is another who likes the spotlight, the low rumblings of his five string bass prominent as he drove the music on.

The set was concluded with the slower History, the audience taking over the vocals near the end, followed by a return to the power with new song Spinning Over the Island.

The clamour for an encore was thunderous and the band obliged, returning to play Encore Into Oblivion and the single Front Row Seats to the End of the World, with the twin vocals of Richards and Davies-Kreye prominent throughout.

Funeral For A Friend may have been through line up changes that has slowed their progress. But on the basis of this fine set the band is now back to its dynamic best. Catch them on tour, or at the Download Festival, if you can.