I feel like a total bitch saying that as I know tickets for this gig were like gold-dust; they flew out of the usual outlets in seconds and I only succeeded in scoring some by being tipped off that they were selling them from the Edinburgh Fringe Box Office and hanging on the phone with my heart in my mouth for a good 20 minutes. But hey, I can’t love everything I see (Mastodon and rubbish Nicolas Cage films are about the only things I've spoken ill of on here so far!) and I know I need to be more objective at times so here’s my opportunity.
First off, let’s deal with the venue itself. What a complete soulless wasteland of a place. Like a community centre aching to be hip, the bars were shiny and new and the walls were white-washed and glaring, even in the dark of the show. It was long rather than wide, and actually seemed to slope downwards towards the back, as once the place was full I literally couldn’t see a THING from where I was standing, and I’m no midget. The only vantage point I could find was out on the wing, quite far forwards, and due to the intensely packed nature of the venue I couldn’t even get there until over halfway through the gig. And the heat. Oh god, the heat. For a fairly high-ceilinged room with a relatively large exit, the lack of air on offer combined with the temperature made it about as pleasant in there as jamming your head up a fat Glaswegian’s armpit.
Anyway, onto the music. Oceansize were the support act. Having been mightily impressed with them at Sonisphere I was looking forward to seeing them again but they were not on point tonight. If I had been seeing them for the first time I would have lost interest fairly quickly; the depth of sound and beautiful light show on offer in the Bohemia tent was missing and in its place a lacklustre performance, two-dimensional in comparison. I struggled to defend them to my unimpressed other half but lost the will after a while as in honesty, I didn’t enjoy them that much myself. Perhaps the shortest love story ever written, between a band and myself.
Faith No More are rock stars, never let it be said otherwise. They may be on their first tour in 11 years but they are just as cool as they ever were, and to prove it they put on a display of tardiness even Metallica would be proud of. In fact, Metallica have been almost… punctual of late, so it’s a bit of a drag waiting a good 25 minutes for his royal Patton-ness and co to take the stage, especially with the rising heat.
When they finally grace us with their presence, it’s admittedly been worth the wait. The setlist is different to that at Download and has some highlights, Midlife Crisis, Gentle Art of Making Enemies and Ashes to Ashes among them. There’s also an impromptu rendition of the Eastenders themetune, as well as a great deal of amusing banter, but overall it isn’t a patch on the Download setlist, from a personal point of view. They have a fairly sizeable back catalogue to select from and although they move from album to album they somehow manage to miss nearly all of my preferred tracks. Didn't they read my memo! The lateness means their main set is only an hour long, and the two encores are more about pissing about than actually packing in the classics. I hate to say it but I wonder if they are getting bored with each other all over again. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed it, I did. Maybe I’m just in post-summer, post-festival, post-gig blues mode and am being overly crotchety. I take it back. They do seem to be having fun together, I’m just being a grouch. And despite all my gripes with the venue, the sound wasn’t too bad really. And Mike Patton had a girl up onstage to sing with him and she licked his armpit. Which is worth mentioning in itself.
All in all, I am over the moon to have seen them at Download, and maintain it was probably the best headline festival set I’ve ever seen. And I feel privileged to have had another chance to see them live. This show was Faith No More, so I don’t even feel like I should be allowed to complain. It was Faith No f**king More. Just… with a little something missing.
