The Academy 2: February 1st 2011
Funeral Party are one of those bands I’ve been keeping an eye on lately. The LA band have a mix of Indie, punk dance and funk in their sound and I was curious to see how this would stand up live.
The Academy 2, or The Basement as I call it, was sparsely populated as the band came to the stage to a modest reception. Singer Chad Elliot asks the audience to come closer to the stage after the first song and slowly the band start to convert the partisan crowd. By the time Funeral Party play ‘Car Wars’ the crowd are bopping. The mix of fantastic drumming and a pumping funky bass lines are hard to resist. Pity though, the vocals were so low in the mix.
Frontman Chad was faced with a couple of ‘eagar’ fans, after challenging one to a drinking contest after the show, I think the lady in question though it was her lucky night. One drawback though of the audience being so close to the stage is poor auld Chad has a camera constantly stuck in his face. I mean 2 inches away.
The band worked their way through the tracks from ‘The Golden Age of Knowhere’ with ‘Finale’ getting the biggest reaction of the night. They finished their set with ‘NYC moves to the sound of LA’, before coming back for an encore of ‘Just Because’. It’s a pity this was the end of the set, as Eliott really started letting go and climbing across the drumkit and hanging from beams on stage, which really seems to suits the vibe of this basement gig.
Funeral Party have a great indie funk feel. Highlights were the singles but with the album only out a week, it should give the band more opportunities to expand their fanbase in the next while. Pity there weren’t more people there to see this. I really enjoyed it.
Special Thanks to MCD and Goldenplec
