Thursday 11th March 2010 @ Academy, Bristol
With Support From: The Chemists

Tonight the Academy was strangely filling up very early and very quickly from the moment the doors were open. This was due to the touring support for the Fun Lovin Criminals being a Bristol band known as The Chemists. I had already seen them support Skunk Anansie last November and was very impressed back then.

You can instantly see why these guys are getting such great support slots as they explode onto the stage with beaming smiles, strong vocals and sharp riffs. The Chemists seem to have a great way of making you pay attention from the get-go and that, to me, is pretty rare for a support band. It’s also good to see a band with such strong…err…chemistry between them. They interact and joke with each other during the performance without making you feel like the audience is not in the room. They had a strong crowd there to see them but strangely for a Bristol band, we don’t seem to see them very often here. We need more bands like these guys flying the flag for this city as they rocked it tonight!

Then the Fun Lovin Criminals saunter onto the stage and all of a sudden the venue is heaving. With heads on shoulders all around the room and on every level just to see if these guys are as cool in person and live, guess what? They are! These guys ooze cool - it drips off them. In fact, if I was told after this gig that Huey invented cool I wouldn’t question it. These guys are still as smooth as they were a decade ago and their live setup is perfect. I was particularly impressed with the drumming; snappy yet soulful which worked perfectly with the vocals and Fast’s multitude of instruments and samples. They are on tour to promote their latest album, Classic Fantastic, and if the songs from it tonight are anything to go by, it’s a corker!

I always find it hard to describe Fun Lovin Criminals; are they hip-hop? R&B? Soul? Rock? Funk? Pop? The great thing is they are all of these things and that seems to be why they have lasted so long. All the classics are still performed with gusto including Loco, Barry White and Scooby Snacks. The band are as fresh and smooth as ever, you deserve to see them next time they play!

www.funlovincriminals.tv

Stu Freeman