Acoustic Dreams &
Hardcore Screams

Imagine one of your favourite bands of all time; one you’ve loved for years and years and followed through every album. Then imagine they were going to perform your favourite (and arguably the best) album of theirs in its entirety in an intimate venue in their home country. Sounds too good to be true, right? Wrong. Funeral For A Friend (FFAF) did it last night in Cardiff Solus.

Nights like this just don’t happen. Sure, you can go to a gig and see a band and they’ll hit you with some of their best tracks from years ago but never the whole damn thing. ‘Casually Dressed and Deep in Conversation’ was an absolute masterpiece when it first came out and the love for it still reigns today. It is one of those unforgettable albums for lovers of this genre of music.

Another reason the night was so special was due to the fact it was one of the last times that guitarist Darran Smith would play with the band after announcing his departure after 8 and a half years together. So emotions were mixed. ‘Casually’ being played in full seemed like an apt way to say goodbye but it was happiness mixed with sadness that we bid farewell to the man whose played those iconic riffs we’ve all grown to love and identify in an instant during his time in FFAF.

As the band entered onto stage we all knew what was coming first and it was a little weird to know the set list before it had even begun. ‘Rookie of the Year’ started up and the whole crowd was putty in the band’s hands for the next hour as song after song was played with sharp finesse as we witnessed a whole CD played live before us.

Matt Davies was on fine form leading the rest of the band with all the passionate spirit and likable charm that a front man should possess and when we reached the infamous ‘Juneau’ there was something about the electric atmosphere that sent your mind back to the video for the song where they all looked fresh and young and we were suddenly in front of these 5 grown men with families and a solid history of being in a successful rock band.

There really is no way to sum up how ‘Casually’ live looked, sounded and felt. Davies’ random chatter between songs brought the whole experience down to earth as he conversed with the crowd like we were all friends sharing in it together. Before ‘She Drove Me to Daytime Television’ he proclaimed “this is the time before the song where I would usually tell you all what I’m going to sing and what you need to sing back. But quite frankly you should f*cking know by now, so I’m not going to say anything. If you don’t know what to do then just look at the person closest to you and copy the sh*t outta them!” And so he sang the lines and we sang the “whoa-oh-oh’s” right back at him.

But really the crowd needed little persuasion to sing every single word to every single song. We were like a choral backing squad at the mercy of FFAF’s every word. ‘Your Revolution Is A Joke’ was the one and only slow song of the set – one that is never usually played and a chance for everyone to see Matt Davies’ vocals stripped down solo with only one guitar to accompany him. It was raw and it was beautiful and just as we were all mellowed out we were literally woken back up by ‘Waking Up’.


The funniest moment came just before ‘Novella’; the twelfth and final song of the album performance. After numerous chants of “Darran! Darran!” which took place several times throughout the show, interspersed with frequent brother love between members of the band; it seemed Darran couldn’t quite remember the opening to the song. In fact it took three attempts before he successfully played the tune without faltering. In some ways it seemed he was a little choked up from all the love being thrust his way from the rest of the band and the packed out venue in front of him.

After ‘Casually’ was done and polished off, the band exited the stage for a short moment of time before coming back on and treating us to 8 more songs including well-loved singles and two songs from a favourite amongst old-timers – their EP 'Seven Ways To Scream Your Name'. If the night was already fantastic, it just hit off the scale. From the soaring and uplifting ‘Into Oblivion’ to the sheer raw power of ‘The Art of American Football’ to the intensity of newer track from 2009 ‘Wrench’; the band continued to prove why they have achieved what they have to date. Not only that but they brought out Matt Tuck (Bullet For My Valentine) for the penultimate song ‘This Year’s Most Open Heartbreak’ during which the audience let rip what energy they had left.

FFAF had given us all they had for one and a half hours of sheer musical bliss. Hearing tracks like ‘Moments Forever Faded’, that they stated was only one of the few times they’d ever played it live, along with seeing all the blood (a guy passed me with a bloody nose after exiting the ferocious mosh pit that FFAF songs can conjure up), sweat and, maybe even tears, that other popular tracks created was definitely a once in a life time experience. Memories like that don’t fade fast.

The last song sadly came and ‘History’ couldn’t have been any more appropriate for what the night had all been about. It was with heavy, but full hearts that we sang along to a song representative of an end but also of remembrance and with one last group hug amongst the band, one big bow to the crowd and a few last chants of “Darran!” we said a silent goodbye to one of FFAF’s chapters and stood hopeful that there will be many more to come.

Set list for the night:

'Casually Dressed & Deep In Conversation'
Rookie of the Year
Bullet Theory
Juneau
Bend Your Arms to Look Like Wings
Escape Artists Never Die
Storytelling
Moments Forever Faded
She Drove Me to Daytime Television
Red Is the New Black
Your Revolution Is a Joke
Waking Up
Novella

ENCORE
Into Oblivion (Reunion)
The Art of American Football
Roses for the Dead
Wrench
Streetcar
You Want Romance?
This Year's Most Open Heartbreak w/Matt Tuck
History

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