Faith No More

A couple of weeks ago, Al and I went out to Brixton to catch Faith No More playing at the academy. I must admit, I’m not the worlds biggest Faith No More fan, however there are a lot of their songs I consider to be a classic, and given this – along with the fact that Brixton has to be one of the best venues ever, due mainly to the sloping floor – I was happy to tag along.

The warm-up act was easily one of the most forgettable bands I have ever seen. At one point, Al said to me, “What’s with that chick?” referring to the lead singer; unfortunately though, it was, in fact, a bloke. But I had to let him off the hook – the way he was dancing and the clothes he was wearing made it rather ambiguous. It was also the first time I’ve ever seen a band actually booed off the stage – it was harsh, but fair!

Faith No More came on to an eruption of applause. It was their first gig in something like 10 years, and judging by the reaction from the crowd, they had been sorely missed.

If I had to summarise the gig in one word, it would be “loud”. I was wearing earplugs, yet at times I still had to cover my ears to dampen the noise. I think this was mainly when Mike Paton (the lead singer) was yelling into a microphone – through a megaphone.

As you can see, the noise meter on my iPhone tops out at 120 dB. Each time I took a reading, the needle went straight to the end of the display, and didn’t move. I’ve never seen it do that before, it usually bounces around a bit before finally reporting the “average”. Yes, this was definitely the loudest gig that I’ve ever been to, and I felt extremely sorry for all the hardcore fans who are still convinced that earplugs ruin the sound.

But, credit where credit is due – it was an excellent concert. With such a plethora of hits at their disposal, they could have played practically anything and the crowd would have loved it. Definite favourites for me were Midlife Crisis, Stripsearch, and Be Aggressive.

The commute home was a bit of a nightmare due to all tube lines being down (tube strike), so I missed the last couple of songs in order to save myself having to get a taxi. But I walked out extremely satisfied, so no real complaints! gerrod.com rating: 8.5/10.