Now, I’d heard of Friendly Fires before the festival, but didn’t know much about them, and having realised that they played during a lull in the afternoon’s proceedings (and after our little chat with Bloc Party), we decided to check them out – and they were amazing.
Playing the vast majority of their debut album (which came out yesterday, 1st September) throughout their set, they slowly drew in more and more people with their Klaxons / Killers hybrid and managed to make everyone dance much more than many of the previous bands on Saturday afternoon. Lead singer Ed Macfarlane danced around the stage like a slightly younger Klaxons, playing disco-rock whilst thrusting ecestatically.
“Jump in the Pool” received one of the biggest receptions of the set, as everyone danced like loons, even attracting those of the crowd who were easily old enough to remember rave the first time round, before it even became “nu-rave”.
After the jump: More big photos
December 28th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
[...] that night of the tour was the first, they were that energetic. First had my eyes opened to them at Hydro Connect in September. Amazing live, great [...]
January 29th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
[...] you know I love Friendly Fires. I’ve caught them live twice, now they’ve gone and released what must be the last single from their debut album, [...]
February 10th, 2009 at 11:48 am
[...] caught them twice in 2008 – the first time at Hydro Connect, then at Oxford [...]
July 16th, 2009 at 2:15 am
[...] that had seen 20 crowd surfers flung over. Sounding as fresh as they did when I first saw them last August, it’s surprising considering just how hard they’ve been touring of late (and partying, [...]