FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND @ O2 Academy Newcastle [Gig Review - Tuesday 25th Oct 2011]

Last week, Welsh rock royalty Funeral For A Friend rolled into Newcastle, packing a hugely enthusiastic audience into the city's O2 Academy on a night when the air outside carried the first proper chill of the impending cruel winter, but which inside was pregnant with the venomous rock energy of FFAF and their legion of support acts. The post-hardcore fivesome brought along three such supports, with both The Bunny The Bear (just plain odd) and The Amity Affliction (energetic and impressive) offering entertaining opening slots before Escape The Fate burst on stage, meshing Avenged Sevenfold guitar licks and complex solos with Bullet For My Valentine vocals and The Used -style melodies, eating up the stage, winning over a lot of an admittedly very willing crowd and burning through a short-feeling set whose perceived speed had more to do with the band's energy than actual show time. They don't necessarily have an instantly recognisable unique sound, since they obviously draw in a lot of contemporary influences into their routines, but the US band have enough on stage presence to have made them an engaging aside before the main events. And then, after a lull that the audience spent enthusiastically refuelling (judging by the intoxicated swaggers I witnessed), Funeral For A Friend took to the stage, without pomp or circumstance, no imposing stage set-up either, and got into it quickly. This was the first time I had seen FFAF since the new line-up was completed by Richard Boucher, in the wake of Darron Smith's departure, and the transition seems to have been pretty seamless. The live show is still extremely tight, and there is certainly more maturity in the performance, perhaps thanks to the occasionally bumpy journey the band have been on to get here. Matthew Davies-Kreye's was vocally on top form, when I could hear them clearly enough (more of which shortly), and this new line-up has an easy chemistry on stage that makes them feel both fresh and established at the same time. The band blister through a mix of classics, and new-fan-friendly fare from latest collection "Welcome Home Armageddon", with Roses For the Dead and a rousing, pallette-clensing performance of Oblivion standing out as the high-points of what was a very strong set overall. Davies-Kreye is a more than capable, if slightly unassuming front-man, whose vocal strength is enough to convince of his suitability to front the band, but his forced outrage at not being able to tell the audience how to dance, on health and safety grounds, and his subsequent middle finger to "the establishment" felt a bit too faux to land any authentic punch with this probably too-cynical writer, but then the pit kids loved it. Heavier rock outfits don't always suit the O2 - there's something about the way the floor is laid-out (with the high-ceilinged floor area at one end, nearest the stage, and the low ceilinged raised areas behind) that invites particularly laden sound up into the rafters. FFAF suffered that same fate from my original position at the back of the room (I move around a few times to see how a band engages the entire room), but moving forward soon solved most of the acoustic shortcomings. It didn't particularly help that the sound mix had cruelly neglected the mic levels so most of the vocals were indistinguishable on heavier tracks for those who weren't over-familiar with the tracks, while they shone on slower compositions like Oblivion. But then there is always going to be an element of the crowds who come out to see Funeral For a Friend who turn up to be blown away by the volume and depth of the soundscape, and on those terms, if not exactly in the clarity of their sound, the Welsh band hit every note perfectly.