GiggingNI.com

Funeral for a Friend

With Daveit Ferris;

It's not often that Derry has any big bands playing within her fair walled city so this may explain why I saw a crowd of loyal teenagers standing outside the Nerve Centre at half six on a Saturday night waiting, in pouring rain and cold air for Funeral For A Friend; whose show didn't start until eight. That was real commitment!

Daveit Ferris, armed with a trilby hat and an acoustic guitar strode onto the Nerve Centre stage and proclaimed; "I know you weren't expecting an acoustic set supporting Funeral." This may have explained why the crowd were a little indifferent about his arrival but that's not to say that they were in any way displeased by his presence. It really didn't take long for Daveit to win them over completely and soon everyone was clapping and cheering and there was an enthusiastic atmosphere engulfing the room. He played a good mix of fast upbeat tracks and a fair share of slower more meaningful songs to which a few couples took the opportunity to slow dance to; it was so sweet it nearly brought a tiny tear to my soppy, over-sentimental eye. As well written and catchy his songs are; they seemed a bit repetitive closer to the end of his set. My friend said that she even heard someone shout something to that affect from the back of the room. Right, I'm actually surprised that I got this far writing about Daveit Ferris without mentioning his voice; it's amazing and he was defiantly on form on Saturday night. It's encapsulating, once you hear his voice it's hard to concentrate of much else going on. I'm not the biggest fan of Daveit but I can appreciate a few things about him; he's a talented singer, composer, lyricist and completely devoted to working within the music industry and for this I, in a sense, respect him. All those factors accumulate to why I sort of hate saying that his material can be a bit repetitive if you listen to it for a while.

When Funeral for a Friend finally came on stage the crowd were absolutely ecstatic; I've seen some pretty big bands play in the Nerve Centre but I never imagined that Funeral would get such a reception from my hometown. Anticipation and excitement filled the air as they began with 'Streetcar'. The sound of the screams echoing against the wall coinciding with energy from the amps was really too atmospheric for words. This particular tour was a special one; Funeral for a Friend let their fans vote for the set list they wanted; this caused a lot of older songs to be played. This really ploughed more life into the audience and I swear, 99.9% of everyone present sang along intently for the majority of the night, loudly and proudly! I really felt apart of a special, super club, truly a heart warming moment in my life! Funeral for a Friend really had amazing hold on the crowd; they were so talkative and really down to earth. I would have happily sat four hours just listening to them chatting completely forgetting that they were holding instruments for a reason! I really love bands like that! I think they really attributed to the energy in the room just by being their lovely selves! They were running and jumping around the stage like God knows what; and everyone was loving it! When they went off stage before their encore there was a temporary lull in the crowd before everyone started screaming for more and more. To be honest, if they went off and didn't even consider doing an encore they'd have to after their legendary reception; the crowd were so hyped I think they would have stood their for weeks waiting just for one more song. Thankfully they came back and played 3 more songs, finishing with'Juneau', probably their best known song. Amazing way to end an amazing show! Some other songs on the Derry setlist included 'Roses for the Dead', 'The Art of American Football' and 'Recovery'.

In conclusion, I will admit that I'm not the biggest Funeral for a Friend fan, and I will confess that I got some help with my notes from Charlotte Linstrom (Thanks!) but after seeing them I think I'd definitely start listening to their albums and if I had the opportunity to see them play again I'd definitely attend their gigs. I genuinely never thought they'd be such a fantastic band live. A must see even if your not a fan, I've proven that!