GIG: Faderhead (London 2024)

Faderhead's first UK gig for eight years was conveniently timed for a UK bank holiday, which meant we had an extra day to get over it all, haha. We arrived just as J:Dead commenced their set and while I initially thought they sounded quite good, as the set wore on the songs seemed to drag more and more. Also, what is it with British bands, they just revel in their own failings and undermine any credibility they have by pointing out how rubbish they are. Cyferdyne are another one. Just stop it. It's one thing for the crowd to think you're shit, it's quite another to go out there and tell them you are...

I seem to remember Elektrowerkz had been done up since our last visit, though honestly there wasn't that much evidence of it. They did have some new red laser lights over the crowd which probably look great during the club nights but are quite distracting when the bands are on stage. 

Faderhead took to the stage in an absolute fog of dry ice, and with just two red lights pointing at him it was almost impossible to see anything. Sami actually asked the venue to reduce the smoke as he couldn't see anything either... unfortunately that wasn't the only problem. The sound was also pretty terrible and when the second song started I was standing there trying to decide whether it was actually 'Generation Black' I was hearing or not. The drum beat sounded familiar but everything else was mush.

Thankfully the sound resolved after about the first five songs and the smoke also cleared eventually, which meant we could actually see Sami and his DJ helper guy.

At one point Sami mentioned that he was releasing a single every month and that he had just released a new one with Sasha from Neuroticfish. He then went on to say that there was no point playing that one as he only sang 25% of it, so instead he was going to play 'The Hell We Need' (February's single) instead. 

He then mentioned how some guy from the UK called Rob (ahem) told him the song sucks and please not to play it at the show - but he did anyway. So much for taking my advice, hahaha!

Overall, the show was okay. Sami was clearly not feeling his best and the setlist was a bit patchy. He'd included some slower songs to give his voice a break, but these really sapped the energy out of the room... regardless of whether I liked those songs or not, I think he has much much better slower songs he could have done, but whatever.

Of the three Faderhead shows I've seen though it was definitely the 'least best', but I guess that was inevitable given that the last FHD album I really, really loved was FHX in 2016. 

Still, I'm glad we went, but travelling to London for shows is really starting to lose its appeal. We've been doing it for 30 years now and the journey back is such a depressing and tiring experience... I think it will take something remarkable to get us back again. Probably only Zeromancer could do it and that's not very likely at all.