Funeral For A Friend are a band I’ve admired for a long time. They were one of the first bands to successfully popularise the “screamo” genre but luckily for them, unlike a lot of other bands from this genre, Funeral For A Friend have managed to evolve their sound into a more mature one, thus meaning they have forever kept themselves original.
Tonight’s show at Manchester Academy 2 is part of a tour promoting the bands latest album ‘Your History Is Mine: 2002-2009’, a compilation of the bands greatest hits as well as four new tracks. Tonight is a sell out and the mixture of ages within the crowd just goes to show how diverse the fans are, and reaffirm the bands ability to evolve and reach new audiences with each new release.
Watching them on stage, it is obvious the band still love every minute of what they do, as they hit the stage with smiles on their faces and cheeky grins aplenty. Tonight’s setlist - as the band announce - was chosen by fans via a poll on their Myspace blog, and the mammoth 19 song set is a mixture of both old and more recent tracks.
Opener, ‘Streetcar’ from the bands second full-length album ‘Hours’ is an energiser from the get go and the energy is maintained until closer and old-favourite ‘Juneau’, whilst along the way the bands latest single ‘Wrench’ shows a return to form for the band, showcasing that they still are able to write songs that pack a weighty punch.
In the past Greatest Hits albums and tours have often indicated to the demise of a band but judging from tonight’s performance Funeral For A Friend still have a lot more they want to share with the world and this makes me very happy.
Words & Photos - Mark Forrer
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