Live Review: Friendly Fires at London’s Roundhouse – 15th July 2009
Apple’s iTunes festival is now in its third year, each outing seeing it attracting bigger names at better venues. This year, they’ve filled 31 nights at the Roundhouse, and I caught the fifteenth night, with Friendly Fires and Magistrates. The best bit about the gigs? All the tickets are given away to competition winners, which makes everyone even more up for it than normal.
Magistrates, fresh from playing the NME Radar tour in May, opened things up, playing a captivating set that had everyone dancing and the first crowd surfers of the evening going over. After a short break, Friendly Fires came to a smoke filled set, blasting through their entire debut album and new single “Kiss of Life”.
Lead singer Ed Macfarlane was dripping in sweat from the first song, as he gave his best dad-dancing to the packed Roundhouse. However, they were clearly aware of the carnage in the pit, asking everyone to “just dance, none of this moshing” 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, if you believe The Sun).
Closing out with the customary extended version of “Ex-Lover”, all too soon they were done, and it was time to go, watching some very drunk Camden-ites air-drumming the finale.
After the jump: setlist and photos.
Friendly Fires :: Setlist :: London Roundhouse 15th July 2009
Lovesick
Jump in the Pool
Skeleton Boy
In the Hospital
White diamond
Strobe
Kiss Of Life
Photobooth
On board
Paris
—
Ex lover
Magistrates photos:
Friendly Fires Photos:
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27th December 2009
[…] moshers were reported at Friendly Fires’s sold-out iTunes Festival gig in July, I certainly was not expecting this in America. Nor was I expecting the 25+ people who stormed the […]