Funeral Suits, Live At Whelan's
Heavy without being over-bearing, light and electronic yet full of powerful mind-blowing basslines and catchy guitar riffs
Nadene Ryan, 15 Jun 2012
You’d expect a band with a name like Funeral Suits to offer up something dismal and dark rather than bright and ethereal, yet the Dubliners manage to capture something from both sides of this spectrum. Their music is heavy without being over-bearing, light and electronic yet full of powerful mind-blowing basslines and catchy guitar riffs.
Strong support slots from Gypsies On The Autobahn and Moscow Metro whet musical appetites before the dramatic intro to ‘Mary’s Revenge’ blasts out. The band emerge from the wings and dive straight into the multiple-vocal intro of their brilliant debut single.
Sporting face-sweeping fringes, they treat the crowd to spine-tingling electronic beats, showing that they’ve come a long way and really tightened up their sound since they played at Electric Picnic less than a year ago.
‘Health’ has the potential to be a big anthem; ‘Stars Are Spaceships’ has echoes of Death Cab For Cutie, but packs more of a punch and ‘Florida’ is underpinned by beautiful organ-like keyboard sounds that flicker throughout. They slow right down for ‘We Only Attack Ourselves’, a stripped-back, captivating song which holds its own against the more intricate tunes on the setlist. The vocals crack with an emotional intensity that makes you stop and take notice. ‘Hands Down’ has a relaxing, folky element that builds gradually to a brilliant instrumental climax, leading neatly into the light-hearted ‘All Those Friendly People’. They finish with the riff-tastic ‘Machines Too’, another of the standouts from their Lily Of The Valley album, which manages to capture the raw energy we witnessed tonight.
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