Review – Funeral For a Friend – Stoke Sugarmill – Monday 28th March 2011

Tonight’s gig, my second Funeral For A Friend show in 5 days, was something pretty special to me personally. Getting to see one of my favourite bands, and one that has been so influential on my musical landscape over the past 8 years in one of my most favourite venues, was always going to be a sight to behold. Couple that in with the fact that it was also destined to be smallest FFAF show I have ever been to, then it is fair to see that the expectations were high.

I was not disappointed.

Having already seen Rise to Remain last week in Manchester, I wasn’t too fussed in getting down earlier for them again this time. That is not a reflection on the band at all, just that I wasn’t intent on busting a gut in getting there in time having been in work all day. I got to the venue in time to see the last three songs in their set. They sound even better from what I saw, thanks to the Sugarmill acoustics, but struggled in getting the crowd going like they did in Manchester. Nights like this they will one day own, but tonight is clearly not that night. The hordes in attendance at the sold out venue are clearly here to see one band only.

The moment Funeral For A Friend step onto the stage tonight, the crowd erupts, in searing anticipation of something that doesn’t happen that often. FFAF last graced Stoke in 2006 when they played at Keele University (Matt Davies making a humourous faux pax tonight, by not realising that Keele is part of Stoke was pretty funny too!) and I believe the last time they played this venue was sometime in the early part of last decade.

However, the wait was completely worth it.

Exploding onto the stage tonight, to yet another heroes welcome, FFAF blast through the exact same setlist as last Thursday’s Manchester show, once more bringing the hits out to the delight of the baying crowd.

Matt Davies is still a wonderful frontman, goading the crowd at every twist and turn, and holding them in the palm of his hand throughout. A spirited attempt to get the crowd rocking a conga onto the balcony, with the leader being promised the opportunity to share super-noodles on the tour bus with the frontman if successful, only highlights the sense of fun this band are having at the moment, on this intimate run across the country. As I said in my review of the Manchester show, they are a band reunited, and revitalised by a reshuffled lineup, and tonight, as with last week, they show once more why they are ready to take over the world once more.

They have hits in abundance, and the strength of the setlist is only made further impressive, when considering the tracks that just didn’t make the cut. They are the people’s band, and the opportunity to see a band of such stature and size in this tiny sweat box of a venue, is really a special thing to witness. It is rare that Sugarmill gigs sell out, but tonight has been sold out for weeks, the local scene clearly ready to see their heroes walk the stage in their hometown once more.

Technically stunning throughout, each band member looks and sounds as though they are playing for their lives. They aren’t, but you wouldn’t have guessed it from the way they strut across the stage and fire out classic-after-classic for the hordes to scream back to them.

Over the years they have written some of the best songs of a generation, and with the material from the latest record going down so well, it is clear that Welcome Home Armageddon as a collection of songs is only a continuance of their song writing brilliance and undoubted prowess. Sandwich that in amongst some of their finest moments in their back catalogue, added with the intimacy of the Sugarmill venue, tonight is a special night indeed.

Red Is The New Black in particular sounds massive, as does Into Oblivion (Reunion), History, Juneau, and Escape Artists Never Die, and across the setlist there are plenty of special and memorable moments that stick out, and I can say that honestly, even though it was a carbon copy of the setlist I saw last week.

It was unique, exciting, and once more, bordering on dangerous, which is everything a good rock show should be.

The devotion they evoke from the crowd tonight only shows that they truly are the people’s band, and one that the hardcore fans still believe in, nigh on ten years into a sterling career. Where they will go next from here is anyone’s guess, but regardless, with shows this good, and material this good, they clearly are still heading straight back to the top of the pile.

No-one in attendance will ever forget tonight, and we can only hope that they make a return to Stoke again in the future, so the locals don’t have to wait so long for another burst of their rock brilliance.

Unforgettable.

Setlist: Roses For The Dead/Rookie of the Year/Sixteen/Juneau/Aftertaste/End of Nothing/Serpents In Solitude/Red Is The New Black/Damned If You Do, Dead If You Don’t/Monsters/Man Alive/History/Spinning Over The Island/Into Oblivion(Reunion)/Front Row Seats To The End Of The World/Escape Artists Never Die