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1. ghbradshaw (about 1 month ago)

   After a great session meeting the employees and users of Songkick, I headed over to the Forum for one of my most anticipated gigs of the year. Having missed out on numerous festival appearances and the Somerset House gig this was my first time seeing my Welsh heroes in about 2 years.

   Richard James played a great opening set. It's clear that he provided the folkier influence within Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, with Euros Childs bringing the more wacky pop elements.

   During the last few tours I've found SFA's live sets have become a bit stale. Don't get me wrong, I've loved every gig of theirs I've seen, but with such a rich back catalogue I always feel that they could be so much more if they chucked in more than one 'new oldie' per tour, with the rest remaining largely similar. With the band coming on stage to the instrumental introuction of 'Furryvision', I felt that maybe this time would be different. They launched into Zoom, one of my top 5 SFA songs (don't ask me to try to work out the others, it's too hard!) and for those 7 or so minutes I forgot all of my concerns and became lost in the music. It shouldn't have been a huge surprise as they still play it occasionally but I wasn't expecting it at all.

   The rest of the nearly 2-hour gig was made up of a lot of the excellent new album Dark Days/Light Years ('Neil Diamond' and 'Crazy Naked Girls' being highlights), and a fairly predictable (but highly enjoyable) mix of classic singles. The biggest surprise was 'Blerwytirhwng?' from their debut EP which was a superb choice of rarity.

   Having previously been famous for their ambitious shows ( yeti costumes, video projections, arriving on stage in a golf buggy, elaborate stage sets) this was very much a 'no frills' gig with the focus on the music. Even the customary Power Ranger helmet for 'Slow Life' was gone. A Pete Fowler/Keiichi Tanaami backdrop, and an assortment of homemade cardboard signs saying "Applause", "Whoa!", etc (a concept borrowed from Gruff's Neon Neon side project's live shows) were the only visual elements employed, with the band proving to the extatic crowd that they don't need gimmics to put on a fantastic gig.

   The gig concluded with the customary 'The Man Don't Give A Fuck' (in it's shortened rather than 20 minute techno wig-out form), causing mass crowd moshing, followed by 'Keep The Cosmic Trigger Happy'.

   I will ensure I do whatever it takes to avoid waiting another 2 years to see one of this countries most underrated bands. SFA OK!!!

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   1. krburg (about 1 month ago)

      Nice review, pretty much agree with al points, 3rd time I've seen them this year and I think the sound probably made it the leasr enjoyable of the 3 (Though I did still enjoy, they never play a 'bad' gig..) but I thought the sound was pretty awful, waaaaay to much bass and extremely loud, which is what you would expect from Dinosaur Jr or Sonic Youth, but not for a Furries gig when the bass is just blowing away Demons or Juxtaposed...

      Still a enjoyable 7/10 though

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      1. ghbradshaw (about 1 month ago)

         Yeah fair point about the sound, forgot to mention in the review that Cian and Bunf's vocals weren't getting picked up too well when they took lead vocals. Their vocals are never as strong as Gruff's but the sound made it worse. Pric was very bass heavy and you could barely hear Cian.
         Still, didn't impact the enjoyment too much thankfully :-)

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