By the time I got to Fat Sams - the main concert arena and a pretty full house - this band were already on stage. I had no clue who they were, but they sounded fantastic - especially so since the PA system was as clear as a bell; you could hear the words, the instruments, everything - a trio of guitar, bass and drums with a singer who'd not only got one of those vocals which possessed feel and depth to it, but poured out riffs, leads and subtleties on that guitar to ear-catching effect. I had decided that it must be some UK touring band with the FFAF guys as they really were rather special. The lead singer announced who they were but so softly that I - and no doubt most of the audience who didn't know - still had no clue. So, with wrapt attention, I watched and listened as the guitarist and bassist flew around the stage, delivering highly charged emotional songs that kinda inhabited rock, indie and emo territories all at the same time, but performed and arranged to sound positively refgreshing and alive. In addition to the leads, some of the hooks featured all three musicians on harmonies, while the energy levels soared as the electrifying band produced the goods with bite and power. In the vocals, they've got that Scottish twang which the critics right now are so loving in the force that is Glasgow band Twin Atlantic, and in the mix of dynamics and strength with twisting and turning arrangements where guitars fly and howl, the bass thunders below and the drums crash and drive, this band are 100% exciting. With a final track that sees the most exhilirating instrumental finale I've seen in a long while as the guitarist sets the guitar on stun, lays it down on the floor, then proceeds, with the drummer, to hammer the shit out of a couple more drums before it all ends, this was something very special.
After they'd been on, I wandered over to the stall area and found that they are called The Xcerts, from Aberdeen and, indeed, they are touring all over the country - justifiably so!!
Funeral For A Friend are from South Wales - I first reviewed their music on CD going right back to the earliest days - and last time I caught them live was one of the final gigs at the old Westport Bar where the audience went wild and were swinging from the rafters. Now, five years on, in the rather more spacious surroundings of Fat Sams Live and with a considerably more amazing PA system, here they were again. I'd recently been revisiting all the albums as I'd not played any of their output in a long while, to find that they are a truly great band, managing to mix some extraordinarily complex and addictive songs with huge bursts of nuclear force indie-rock and hardcore and even plenty of dynamics in there too. To a rapturous reception, they wandered on the stage and plugged in. As the power erupted from the PA, the drums made my teeth fall out and the bassist was so powerful, he may have well just as leapt off the stage and hit me squarely round the head with the thing - it was THAT sort of effect. The two guitarists unleashed a sea of riffing and stinging leads while the vocalist just soared above it all, the whole band unleashing this song that had the audience with it from the start and really made a powerful statement at the same time.
I have to say that the audience were amazing - most of them were clearly diehard fans of the band and were singing along which, when you see an audience singing along to what is essentially a commercially viable, complex and frighteningly powerful hardcore band, is quite an eye-opening experience, but at the same time, a testament to the remarkable songwriting abilities of the band. Although the set was predominantly performed with the power button firmly on, they twisted and turned through arrangements that most bands in this genre would be hard-pressed to come up with once, let alone for a whole set. The set itself consisted of tracks old and new, running the gamut of the five years of releases so that we got one of my old faves,"She Drove Me To Daytime Television", which really caught fire as the guitars just roared and the rhythm section thundered over a song that's lost none of its qualities. BY the time they hit the encores, it had been one rollercoaster of a set. On hearing the first encore, "Into Oblivion", you realise that someone somewhere should remarket this as a single because the entire audience were singing along to wa arguably, the most potentially top five single that the band has got in the set, an awesome anthem of a number with a hook that can't fail. After that, it was an explosion of head-crushing harcdcore as the band showed both sides of their coin in two fell swoops - and if you add that to the epic power ballad number that they delivered two thirds the way through the set - showing just why this is a unique band in terms of their songs and playing, totally justified at being at the top of their tree.