Last Friday, I was off to another gig, the first one for this month of May. It would be a relatively different gig than usual but a very familiar venue.

I can no longer recall exactly how I came to listen to Friendly Fires but the moment I did, I fell in love with their unique brand of dance-pop-punk. I knew watching them live would be a different experience than usual and boy was it different.

The venue was the HMV Forum in Camden which was the site where I saw Bloc Party last year and will be seeing Deftones later on in the year. It is still one of the better venues I’ve been to.

Support acts were not mentioned on the Last.fm event page but with just one album yet to their name, we knew there had to be something.

Three drumsets were on stage and at some time close to 7:45, a guy sat on one of them and started playing. The act was one guy playing on the drums with back up techno beats which was quite entertaining albeit being unusual. He played a few songs which did help the crowd ease into the evening. At no point did he mention what his name nor his act was called. He did mention that Magistrates was playing next. After some googling, I found out it was Wax Stag.

After his entertaining set, it was time for the longest wait for a second support band I have ever endured. I’d say Wax Stag finished a few minutes after 8 but Magistrates did not start playing until past 9 which is usually when main acts start.

Anyway, Magistrates finally came up on stage. I’ve never heard of them before this gig and had no idea what kind of music they played. Not having them listed on the Last.fm event page didn’t help either. Nonetheless, watching them on stage was quite enjoyable and surprisingly entertaining. Man, that sounded real lame but seriously, what can be said about a band you’ve never heard before. Believe me though, they were real energetic on stage and their music was pretty good.

At almost 10 in the evening, Friendly Fires finally came up on stage. As far as I remember from their videos, the band only has three members but I was surprised to see 6 come up on stage. With only one album released, you almost knew they’d play every song but of course in a different order. They started off the show with Lovesick which really got the crowd dancing early.

Yes, dancing. I was actually at a gig which was more like a rave than a rock concert. It’s a little out of my shell, but I went on with it and danced a little even though the (dance) floor was packed.

This is dumb. What good is a music gig post-slash-review if I can’t even remember the set list or how each song played out live. Setlist.fm does not have one for this event but I’d go with the top of the list as it does sounds close to what I recall so I’d go with it.

• Lovesick
• Jump In The Pool
• Skeleton Boy
• In The Hospital
• White Diamonds
• Strobe
• Photobooth
• On Board
• Paris
• Ex Lover

Notable songs would be their singles Paris, Skeleton Boy and an extended rendition of Ex Lover as sort of their encore.

Friendly Fires was an amazing and enjoyable experience. They have a ton of energy and unleash it onstage which I am pretty sure, feeds off from the amazing response from the crowd all singing and dancing.

It won’t be long until I see them next as they are supporting Blur on the 2nd of July. I am a bit skeptical about how they would sound in a huge open venue such as Hyde Park but if they pull it off, it would be a massive dancing party.

Apologies for the ridiculously blurry and awful pictures. I just felt the post would be duller without them. Doubt it helps really though.