Funeral For A Friend, Relentless, ArmousUs @ The Corner Hotel, Melbourne (14/05/2013)
Welsh rockers Funeral For A Friend return to Australia for their first headline tour in six years and their first time in Australia since 2011's Counter Revolution mini-festival.
Tonight at the Corner Hotel they are joined by Sydney hardcore band Relentless and Melbourne's own ArmourUs who take the stage first all wearing Anchors Away shirts except for drummer Michael Taylor who must have missed the memo. Although the crowd is small they seem very much into their brand of heavy post-hardcore which even includes a cover of Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe.
After a fairly short change over Relentless take to the stage with their straight out, in your face hardcore. Even though the crowd was much bigger at this time they didn't seem to be getting into the music as much, which was a shame to see. The thing that strikes you most about them is just how passionate they are about their music and how everyone should stand up for what they believe in with words and not fists.
Surprisingly no chant starts up for Funeral For A Friend but they eventually hit the stage and belt out Conduit and The Distance from their new record called Conduit before vocalist Matthew Davies-Kreye lays down some ground rules. When he says jump, everyone jumps and when he says circle pit, everyone creates a circle pit around the pole in the middle of the venue.
They launch into Roses For The Dead and Recovery from 2005's fan-favourite album Hours and, as expected, the crowd goes nuts. Drummer Pat Lundy (formerly of Rise To Remain) who joined the band early last year, performs brilliantly and it isn't hard to see why he was chosen to replace former drummer Ryan Richards.
The band continue to play through tracks from all six studio albums including the touching tracks Alvarez (about accepting your sexuality) and History (about the effect of the UK's 1980s Government had on them, their family and friends when they were growing up) before ending with Escape Artists Never Die from their debut album Casually Dressed and Deep in Conversation.
After a show as amazing as that it's safe to say that no one went home disappointed as the band continue to go from strength to strength.
Matt Barton
Tonight at the Corner Hotel they are joined by Sydney hardcore band Relentless and Melbourne's own ArmourUs who take the stage first all wearing Anchors Away shirts except for drummer Michael Taylor who must have missed the memo. Although the crowd is small they seem very much into their brand of heavy post-hardcore which even includes a cover of Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe.
After a fairly short change over Relentless take to the stage with their straight out, in your face hardcore. Even though the crowd was much bigger at this time they didn't seem to be getting into the music as much, which was a shame to see. The thing that strikes you most about them is just how passionate they are about their music and how everyone should stand up for what they believe in with words and not fists.
Surprisingly no chant starts up for Funeral For A Friend but they eventually hit the stage and belt out Conduit and The Distance from their new record called Conduit before vocalist Matthew Davies-Kreye lays down some ground rules. When he says jump, everyone jumps and when he says circle pit, everyone creates a circle pit around the pole in the middle of the venue.
They launch into Roses For The Dead and Recovery from 2005's fan-favourite album Hours and, as expected, the crowd goes nuts. Drummer Pat Lundy (formerly of Rise To Remain) who joined the band early last year, performs brilliantly and it isn't hard to see why he was chosen to replace former drummer Ryan Richards.
The band continue to play through tracks from all six studio albums including the touching tracks Alvarez (about accepting your sexuality) and History (about the effect of the UK's 1980s Government had on them, their family and friends when they were growing up) before ending with Escape Artists Never Die from their debut album Casually Dressed and Deep in Conversation.
After a show as amazing as that it's safe to say that no one went home disappointed as the band continue to go from strength to strength.
Matt Barton