Live At Manchester Academy 3 - 27.1.11
When I heard that Funeral Party were coming to town I jumped at the chance to get involved. This is a band that has received hype from pretty much everyone involved in music, including Radio 1’s Zane Lowe. I was also quite excited, as I’ve been listening to them since the first demos started to appear!
For a gig that wasn’t sold out, on a freezing cold January night in Manchester I half expected the band not to turn up, however this was not to be the case. The opening act were a testimony to this, ‘Flashguns’ certainly strutted their stuff showing off all their talents (including the lead singers massive ego). Nevertheless they put on a good show, and got the crowd nicely warmed up for the headlines.
Funeral Party took to the stage, a band whose debut album ‘The Golden age of Knowhere’ has been likened to The Strokes, and other such early noughties punk-funk stylings. The band certainly brought their A-game, with their socio-cultural musings mixed with their fast paced tunes pummelling the crowed from every angle. Their style seemed perfectly suited to the relatively small venue and the appreciative (mainly student based) crowd. With barely time to breath between songs the set flowed nicely from one track to the next, combining thumping guitar riffs and catchy hooks.Highlighted in the show however was the bands lack of diversity in their songs (not that I have a problem here!) The lack of certain subtleties, such as a really good ballad to accompany the heavy hitting tracks, was obvious. However it made for quite a refreshing change, as instead of constantly changing instruments, and slowing down the pace of the show, merely to speed up again the band merely powered through.
Tracks such as ‘Carwars’, ‘Golden age of Knowhere’ and ‘Finale’ were all massive highlights of the show, seeing the lead singer actually throwing himself into the crowd during ‘Finale’ and the crowd refusing to let the charismatic Chad Elliott back onto the stage.
The real headliners however were ‘NYC Moves To The Sound Of LA’, which was played pre-encore, and ‘Just Because’ which was saved for the very end sending the crowd crazy.
I really like this band, and feel their live show delivers some cracking tracks and a maturity that you wouldn’t expect for such (for want of a better word) a ‘young’ band. I feel the live show is complemented nicely by a top album, and while proving how good they are, also wears their weaknesses on their sleeve proudly.
A top gig, one I’d advise anyone to see!
Cheers for reading!! Leave me a comment let me know what you think!
Tx
Tx
