An Average Funeral
Funeral for a Friend have come a long way in just a few years. Only a couple of years ago they were just starting to grow in to the band that they have today become when suddenly they seemed to be catapulted almost overnight from 2,000 capacity venues to arenas and main stages at festivals. Where does that actually leave the band though and what does it mean for their show?
Just a couple of hours before Guns n' Roses are due to headline the Main Stage, Funeral for a Friend walk out and cover their hits 'Streetcar' and 'Juneau' within their first few songs. This is followed with a mix of songs from their albums 'Casually Dressed In Deep Conversation' and 'Hours' along with a new song.
As their set draws to a close with 'History' and 'Driving You To Daytime Television' there is a distinct lack of interest in the crowd and a distinctly small crowd considering the size of Funeral for a Friend. Yes, the front few rows of the crowd will happily hurl their arms in the air on cue, but that's where it stops. I had the priveledge of seeing Funeral headline the second stage at Leeds Festival in 2004 and couldn't fault their performance in any way, but despite the fact that there is nothing necessarily tangible to fault with Funeral's performance today, they're just lacking the special something that takes a live show from being average to amazing.
As the final song, 'Escape Artists Never Die', comes to a close the crowd quickly dissipate as the Guns n' Roses fans moves in and everybody else goes to the second stage to see Prodigy. Funeral for a Friend may have come a long way, but with today's performance and today's crowd they have by no means justified their position on the line-up at this year's Download Festival. Whilst Prodigy play to a second stage crowd so intense that the stage is practically closed off this is something that Funeral are nowhere near accomplishing today. Funeral are a fantastic band but today was not their day to shine at Donington.