Funeral For A Friend

Thu 30 Oct 2008

Playing A Packed Lemon Grove

Attack! Attack!

• Neil Starr – Vocals/Guitar
• Ryan Day – Guitar/Vocals
• Will Davies - Bass
• Mike Griffiths – Drums

Attack! Attack!

With the unfortunate events of In Case Of Fire pulling out of tonight’s show due to vocalist Steve having a bad throat infection it was down to Attack! Attack! Kicking things off and the disappointed faces were soon turned to smiles as Welsh quartet from South Wales Attack! Attack! took to the stage brimming with confidence giving Exeter a taster of tracks from their self-titled latest release. Winning the crowd over from the off front man Neil Starr was in fine form with a smile spreading from ear to ear. Tonight was probably the first time a lot of people had ever seen Attack! Attack! but with the exodus to the merchandise stand after they had played I’m sure many will be seeing/listening to them a lot in the future.

Cancer Bats

• Liam Cormier — Vocals
• Scott Middleton — Guitar
• Jaye Schwarzer — Bass
• Mike Peters — Drums

Cancer Bats

If you haven’t heard of Cancer Bats before, basically where have you been? The Canadian quartet have been kicking up a storm across the globe with their raw fusion of hardcore and punk rock and tonight was no different. With a statement on their website ‘The Cancer Bats have come to destroy. Fuelled by a burning desire to rage harder, play louder and have more fun than any other band’ tonight they definitely backed that up with a no holds barred set which saw many of their dedicated fans down the front going crazy for the first time of the night. Its amazing to think its little over three years since the bands first demo and now their travelling the world taking it over city by city.

Exeter tonight had the honour of seeing the Cancer Bats tonight at their very best, how Funeral For A Friend were going to follow such a high octane set I don’t know but tonight the Cancer Bats won over a whole new load of fans.

Funeral For A Friend

• Matt Davies - Vocals
• Kris Coombs Roberts – Guitar/Vocals
• Darran Smith - Guitar
• Gav Burrough – Bass/Vocals
• Ryan Richards – Drums/Vocals

Funeral For A Friend

It always amazes me to see a band like Funeral For A Friend play such a small venue but with the sold out sign outside I wouldn’t be surprised if they could have filled the Great Hall just up the road. Having seen Funeral For A Friend play to around twenty people as a support act at the local music venue, The Cavern to being the main support act to Guns ‘n’ Roses at Download Festival it feels that tonight’s crowd was perfect for the band as they were able to interact with everyone in the room. It didn’t take long for the crowd to be in full voice with crowd singing along with the band on set opener ‘Constant Illuminations’ from there on in Funeral For A Friend mixed songs new and old.

Funeral For A Friend

Tonight Funeral For A Friend were on top form and not only was their music spot on tonight so was the bands sense of humour with Matt Davies constantly joking with the audience and talking about a certain members trouser snake. To say Funeral For A Friend have got a new lease of life would be an understatement and tonight they were truly in their element. It felt like the night was over far to quickly but with tracks such as ‘History’ in the encore which was almost as deafening as when I saw them play the same track in the Great Hall and finishing off with ‘Escape Artists Never Die’ they wasn’t a person in the crowd tonight whose face was plastered with a grin from ear to ear.

Review by Alun Williams
Photos by Alun Williams