FFAF,The Haunted,Million Dead,onelinedrawing-2nd May,Glasgow Barrowland

[Vaya]

Anyone else go to this??This was an AMAZING night.

First on the bill around 7:15 was onelinedrawing(jonah matranga formerly of Far for those who don't know)who in my humble opinion blew EVERYONE off stage.Was a bit of a shame he was on so early as people were still coming in and the place wasn't even half full by the time he finished his set and a lot of people were disappointed about not catching him.Anyways his set,short as it was,was absolutely mesmerising.Opening with(if i remember rightly)"A Ghost" of the new album "The Volunteers" with only himself and a second guitarist present on stage still managed to sound spectacular in a large venue.Jonah's voice is unforgettable so powerful yet breaking up in parts makes for an immensly beautiful and emotional set.He followed this up by taking requests for the next song,so i requested "yr letter" off the previous album "visitor" which he agreed with immediately and launched into what he himself described as "the ultimate break-up song".Unfortunately the power blew out towards the end of the song but jonah like a true professional deapite heckling from some members of the crowd continued acapella until they got the power back up and running again his powerful voice still managing to fill the entire room and finshed the song in fine style-this was by far the most breathtaking and surreal gig experience of my life!next up he played another song off the new album "we had a deal" a fairly uplifting song which has an extremely catchy mid-section.Then came quite possibly the biggest surprise of the night so far,an amazingly beautiful cover of the Deftones classic "be quiet and drive" which against the crunchy,slightly distorted guitars jonah's voice stood out fantastically,every note was hit perfectly and jonah's warm soaring voice made the song his own.He then finished this extremely short but amazing set with a solo rendition of Far's "Mother Mary" off the album "Water And Solutions" which unfortunately was lost on half the teeny bopper MTV funeral fans but was a fantastic end to the most amazing set i've seen,ever.the highlight of the night.....any chance of possibly getting him up here some point??i know someone(Ross i think)came close towards the end of last year...there would definitely be a lot of interest in a gig up here

onelinedrawing had left a hard act to follow.The next band on the bill,Million Dead managed gloriously well.An explosive start to thew set which had Frank dancing around the stage like a madman and starting the first small pits of the night.Ben's drumming was fantastic and the bass and guitars were sounding great.New single "i gave my eyes to stevie wonder" was given an airing and cameron's guitar was sounding amazing during this.Frank's At-The-Drive In style vocals carried well through the entire set,particularly during the penultimate song-"smiling at strangers on trains"off the current album"a song to ruin"which then led straight in to the bass and drums in the intro for "breaking the back" and having descended the pit into total chaos,Million Dead took their bow and left the stage.A delightfully lively set,although left you craving for more.

Next up were the Haunted,a band i have not heard a lot of,have heard a few songs although from what i had heard was looking forward to seeing live.the drum set up in particular was looking immense,two bass drums,and a huge arsenal of cymbals.The band arrived on stage oozing confidence and then all metal hell broke loose as this amazing whirlwind of a set was unleashed.The singer was bouncing all over the stage-the energy this band put into the performance was hella impressive,the singer regularly coming down to the front of the stage to shake hands and snarl in to the faces of adoring fans,and terrified looking teeny bopper funeral fans,beautiful.Their set was fast and over quite quickly but there were plenty of little intricate guitar parts,loads of screaming solos littered throughout the songs the drums were sounding mighty and the powerful growl from the singer carried through extremely well,gave an edge to the performance which was topped off by one of the coolest stage dives-woah that man can fly!!!definitely wanna dee more of this band-heavy as fuck!!

then came the headliners who most of the crowd had been waiting for all night,first on stage was ryan who started up a familiar sounding drum beat,followed by gareth,the guitarists darran and kris and then for one glorious moment they launched into the immense black metal-esque riff for "10 scene points to the winner",one of the B-sides to "escape artists never die" ....wishful thinking though,they only played the intro and as matt arrived on stage they kicked off with first track on the album "rookie of the year"which although not 10 scene points is still a great opener and then without a pause went straight into "bullet theory" and then kicked off the quirky staring riff for "juneau",sparking the biggest singalong of the night so far,nice.They continued to play through the entire album in order as their set,highlights being a beautiful"bend your arms to look like wings", "escape artists never die",the calypso styled "storytelling"which initiated much dancing,the anthemic "she drove me to daytime TV" and the vocal intro for "red is the new black",matt's voice never faltered once.Then there was one of the first live renditions of the more mellow track on the album"your revolution is a joke"which saw kris and matt together on stage with an acoustic guitar and matt's vocals and sparked off a fantastic singalong,almost everyone in the venue was singing along,ace.They were then rejoined on stage by the rest of the band and a strike of a cymbal kicked off the intro for "waking up",the second last track on the album.during this track matt stumbled as something appeared to strike him quite hard on the head,this appeared to be an almost full bottle of water and matt subsequently and quite rightfully so after the song lost his cool and shouted at the guy who had thrown it at him which unfortunately generated some more heckling from some idiots in the crowd.when it had all calmed down again,the band launched straight into "novella" which in a venue this size sounded epic and the band left the stage.A few minutes later they had returned and matt apologized for his outburst(which was really nice of him as he didn't need to) and then in the momentus highlight of the night was joined on stage by none other than the legendary jonah and then in the most spectacular moment of the gig kicked off the intro to far's "the system"(which funeral covered in the B-side to "she drove me to daytime TV/bullet theory"if i remember correctly) jonah's screaming in this amazing song sounded IMMENSE as he and matt bounced around the stage with tremendous energy,a far cry from the start of the night when jonah was standing relaxed centre stage with his guitar and the entire band really seemed to put their all into this making it a fantastic rendition.glorious.with amazing applause jonah took a bow and left the stage to funeral who then finished the set off triumphantly with classics and crowd favourites the wonderful"this year's most open heartbreak" and then finally "the art of ameican football" which generated the biggest and most energetic circle pit of the night,leaving the delighted crowd leaving the venue grinning.

phew-there it is then,an amazing night which hopefully everyone enjoyed-ace

[rondon]

holy shit, thats a lengthy review... Yet another gig I should have gone to. Never mind, Incubus and Biffy coming-up soon.

[ghost]

onelinedrawing sound particularly good.

[Vaya]

Originally posted by ghost:

onelinedrawing sound particularly good.

he is ace.you should check out some of his stuff.

[Stephen]

Originally posted by rondon:

holy shit, thats a lengthy review... Yet another gig I should have gone to. Never mind, Incubus and Biffy coming-up soon.

Incubus? Deeeesc Ron im there tooo