On Saturday the 7th of February 2004, me and four friends (the FFAF Crew; Kate H, Sita and Eva, plus the LEH Special Branch member Elli H) went to see Franz Ferdinand, the Von Bondies, the Rapture and Funeral for a Friend at Brixton Academy.

Wow, another gig my parents will (hopefully) never find out that I went to. Anyway, Sita and Kate went up at ten in the morning (spell it with me, children, that's O-B-S-E-S-S-I-O-N), so they froze their poor lil socks off and me, Eva and Elli got to skip the entire queue. Whoo-hoo! As we were waiting, some security dude came up and checked our tickets, then gave us all heart attacks by telling us that they were wrong and he wasn't going to let us in. Thank the Lord he was joking... although I would still like to throttle him...

Anyway, because Kate and Sita had waited since so early, not only did they MEET MATT DAVIES, but we got front-row-center places. Brilliance. After a bit of waiting around, in which some cute curly-haired kid waved from backstage and the entire crowd waved back at him (what a brilliant memory!), the first band began.

Franz Ferdinand
A lot of people there seemed to be Franz Ferdinand fans. Their name might be straight from the nineteen hundreds; but their music and dress sense is pure Sixties, and it worked very well. In my opinion, they looked and sounded a little bit like the Beatles, just the teeniest tiniest bit, and of course everyone knows that it's cool to be derivative nowadays. They had a cheesy 'photo opportunity' while finishing their set, which saw them posing together at the back of the stage.

In conclusion... Franz Ferdinand are cheesy, but in some weird way it works, and I quite enjoyed their set.

the Von Bondies
We then moved on a couple of decades or so with the Von Bondies. They have a female guitarist and a female bassist, making them instantly cool in my book (rock on rock girls!).

the Rapture
Finally, it was time for the last 'support' band. The Rapture create guitar-dance music (yes, I made up that definition), and, as Matt Davies said later, "made your asses move!". Sita, unfortunately, fainted during their set and had to be dragged out. But the show must go on!

Funeral for a Friend
Well, what can I say? This was my second time seeing FFAF, and I have to say they were amazing. Not, in my opinion, as good as the Astoria gig, but that may be due to the fact that Matt's vocals weren't turned up high enough.

They did, however, play a lot more of their old stuff, perhaps due to the release of Seven Ways to Scream Your Name. The atmosphere changed and became almost surreal, with people pouring over the barrier like water.

All in all, it was a pretty intense experience, and I enjoyed myself thoroughly (minus the fact that one of my best friends collapsed), which should be what live rock music is all about!

High points: The cute curly-haired kid waving at us, Darts of Pleasure by Franz Ferdinand, Waking Up by Funeral for a Friend.

Low points: Sita fainting, the length of the Rapture set (sorry, I just felt it dragged on a little), the fact that Funeral never play the old versions of Juno/Red Is The New Black.

Stars out of 5: 4

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