On the last night of Funeral for a Friend’s headlining tour, they decided to grace the Hall For Cornwall in Truro on one of two added dates announced a mere 40 days before the gig, along with on the 29th of May at the London Forum.

In an arena which is about half the size of the Plymouth Pavillions, the first wave of people to enter the Hall For Cornwall (such as myself) began to wonder how the fuck the hordes of people outside were going to jam in - a feat that was quite admirably accomplished. With the smell of sweat and excitement building up, at precisely 7:30 The Bled entered on stage to an enormous applause from the packed arena. Having never heard any of The Bled, I wasn’t expecting much, however by the end of their 20 odd minute set I, and everyone else who I have spoken to since, were completely blown away. It’s not often that the opening band of the night are so good, and I for one expect to hear a lot more of The Bled as hopefully their well-deserved publicity floods through Britain.

Next up on stage were 36 Crazyfists, one the bands I was most excited to see this evening. Expecting to hear them spit out some of my personal favourites from their extremely underrated album “Bitterness the Star”, I was disappointed - yet shouldn’t really of been surprised-that they didn’t, instead deciding to promote their recently released new album “A Snow Capped Romance”. The next to last song of their set, however, was one of the best moments of the night, as the intro to the acclaimed (and in my view a blinding song) “Slit Wrist Theory” rung throughout the Hall, as everyone chanted along as one to the chorus.

By this time, extremely dehydrated from not going out for a drink, everyone filed out as the third band of the night, My Chemical Romance, began to set-up. Giving a blistering performance, with the crowd going wild to favourites as “Headfirst for Halo’s” and “Honey this mirror is not big enough for the two of us”, they were by far the most energetic band of the night so far, finishing with “Vampire’s Will Never Hurt You”, they closed with a dramatic build up of drums and guitars, before the lights going out and the band rushing off stage to roars of applause.

By this time of the night - if possible - anticipation was even higher than before, as we all waited for headliners Funeral for a Friend to blast onto the stage. Up until now, being right at the front of the arena was bearable, but as Funeral stormed the stage with “Rookie of the Year”, it was environment not for the faint hearted. By the end of their next song, “She drove me To Daytime T.V”, unfortunately an ambulance had been called, due to a girl landing on her head whilst crowd-surfing – whoever you are, hope you’re okay. Interacting the most than any other band of the night, Funeral For a Friend can be known as bloody nice guys, praising the Surfer’s Against Sewage campaign which has been at the heart of all recent gigs in Truro, despite Matt Davies announcing “well I can’t swim so how the fuck do you expect me to surf??” being all part of the light-heartedness of the concert. The last 15 minutes of their set was the best 15 minutes of any gig I have ever been to, with my 3 personal favourite songs, “Red is the New Black, “Your Revolution is a Joke” and the closing song “Juneau” all making their way through the crowd. Only one disappointment came about, and that was with no encore coming after Juneau - though I’m not going to complain - it was one hell of a gig.

Written by Dave Woodrow