The Futureheads Live In Manchester Gig Review | Academy 2 - May 26th 2008

The Futureheads are one of my favourite British bands ever, and one which deserves a lot more credit than they currently get. So when they announced a new UK tour back in March, I nabbed some tickets before they all sold out.

It’s been a long two month wait for the gig to finally come around, but yesterday finally gave me the chance to see the band play live for the first time since they last played Manchester back in 2006. And they have lost none of the magic from those days, and in fact seemed even more energetic than last time I saw them, a tall order indeed.

Maybe it was the small(er) venue which did the trick, as they were playing Academy 2, a compact venue for a band of this magnitude. At one point, the band even acknowledged how good it was to be in a smaller venue and how it helps to see in to the eyes of their notoriously loyal fans. If last night’s show was anything to go on, I’d recommend they play smaller venues more often.

This is the fourth gig I’ve been to this year, with a real mixed bag of artists so far, comprising of Megadeth, The Feeling and Sugababes. They’ve all been brilliant, but this was the best so far, despite being too short for my liking. It was also the complete opposite of the Sugababes gig, with no props, and no costume changes, just out and out good music played at a frenetic pace.

The band came on at about 9.20pm, and apart from the huge cheer, there was no fanfare, no impressive light show or anything. These guys just let their music do the talking, and that’s all the fans need.

They straight away let rip with Decent Days and Nights, a classic from their first album which set the tone for the whole set. They then followed that up with Broke Up The Time, a song from their new album, This Is Not The World, which also came out yesterday, and is now available in all good record shops.

This pattern carried on all night, with the best of their old stuff mixed in with songs of the new album, including Radio heart which I reviewed on Killed By The Video Star just the other day. The new stuff all went down well, although most hadn’t had the time to learn the lyrics off by heart.

However, as soon as a song off one of their previous two records started, the crowd sang every word back. The obvious highlights being Stupid and Shallow, a brilliant little gem of a song, and the Kate Bush cover which everyone knows them for Hounds Of Love. The latter also shows why the Heads are so brilliant: they can all sing, even the moody drummer Dave, and the harmonies are polished to perfection, at least punk perfection.

The gig was brilliant, and I doubt anyone present would have been disappointed when it came to an end all too early. In fact, that is my only criticism, that it was over far too quickly. The set was only 15 songs long, and when some of the songs are around the two-minute mark, that doesn’t add up to much. Sure, they put more energy in to the show than some bands do with a 25 song setlist, but I would have still loved more. And there was no encore, something I have never experienced before at a British gig.

After the problems the band has had over the past couple of years, namely getting dropped by their record label, and having to basically start again, they deserve great success with the new album. Having seen them live, I want the chance to do so again and again for years to come. And for that to happen, I implore you to buy the album.

[Photo Sources: Amazon.co.uk & Dave Parrack]