Saturday, July 19, 2025 – Cardiff Castle, Wales
By The Riff Report – where the tears are real and the riffs are righteous 🤘
🌧️ THE SKY OPENED, THE EMO HEARTS DID TOO
Cardiff Castle – a fortress of ancient stone and modern bangers. Saturday night saw a homegrown emotional onslaught as Funeral for a Friend returned to the Welsh capital for one of only two UK headline shows this year. And what a bloody night it was.
The beer was flowing, the hoodies were up, and the rain? Oh aye, it came down like a post-breakup sob sesh. Tidy weather for a band that made crying into your sleeve fashionable.
This was no nostalgia cash-in. This was a defiant celebration of pain, passion, and post-hardcore power. 💥
🎤 THE SETLIST – A MASTERCLASS IN CATHARSIS
Here’s the full setlist from Cardiff Castle. If you didn’t scream along to Juneau, were you even there, butt?
- Roses for the Dead 🌹💀
- Streetcar 🚗
- The Art of American Football
- Recovery
- Escape Artists Never Die 🖌️
- History 🏰
- 10:45 Amsterdam Conversations
- Red Is the New Black 🔴⚫
- Bend Your Arms to Look Like Wings 🪽
- Alvarez
- All the Rage
- Into Oblivion (Reunion) 🌊
- Monsters
- Juneau ❄️
- Your Revolution Is a Joke (acoustic closer – lighters up moment) 🔥
🧨 THE GOOD – A PROPER EMO HOMECOMING
- Matt Davies-Kreye’s voice is still raw silk. When he belted out Roses for the Dead, every soul in the castle felt it in their chest cavities.
- Guitar tone? As crisp as a fresh Greggs steak bake. Kris and Darran were tighter than your jeans in 2005.
- Crowd singalongs on History and Juneau made grown men cry. Literal tears, mun.
- Pyro and lighting were surprisingly lush – fire bursts during All the Rage lit the castle walls in pure 🔥.
- Local pride was off the charts. You could feel the Cymraeg energy surging – flags, chants, and “C’MON WALES!” screamed between songs.
😬 THE BAD – NOT EVERYTHING WAS TIDY, MUN
- Sound mix early on was a bit ropey. Vocals drowned under drums until halfway through Streetcar.
- The rain didn’t let up – fine for the front rows moshing in soaked denim, not so lush for those halfway back slipping on castle cobbles.
- No merch restock! Hoodies and shirts sold out by 7:45pm. Fans were tamping. Sort it out next time, lads. We want to rep the FFAF drip.
💩 THE UGLY – ONLY A FEW DODGY NOTES
- Security at the gates was slow as a stoner in a mosh pit. Some missed the opening support because of bag checks that went on longer than the second chorus of Escape Artists.
- Toilets. By 10pm they smelled like Satan’s armpit. Cardiff Council, please, we beg: more loos next time!
- One bloke in the pit went full WWE during Monsters. Flailing arms, big boot energy, nearly took out a teenager and a pensioner. C’mon butt, behave yourself!
🏰 VERDICT – A NIGHT TO REMEMBER IN THE LAND OF CASTLES AND CHORDS
Funeral for a Friend at Cardiff Castle was more than a gig. It was an emotional reunion of old friends, a city’s heart laid bare, and a reminder that no matter how many years pass, those songs still hit like a freight train full of feelings. 💔🚂
The band delivered a set packed with passion and precision, the crowd gave back every ounce of love, and Wales stood proud under a stormy sky.
Final Score: 9.5/10
Would we do it again in the rain? In a heartbeat.
📸 HIGHLIGHTS & FAN QUOTES
“I’ve waited years to scream ‘Red Is the New Black’ in my home city. I’m hoarse and emotionally destroyed. Loved every second.” – Lowri from Barry
“They were my soundtrack in uni. Seeing them at the Castle? Bucket list moment unlocked.” – Dai, 36, drenched but euphoric
“I cried during ‘Your Revolution’ and I don’t even care who saw.” – An anonymous legend in a soaked My Chemical Romance hoodie
🎟️ TICKETS, COSTS & INFO
- Tickets: £42.50 + fees (worth every bleeding penny)
- Support Acts: TBC (we missed most of it due to the long queues, but what we heard sounded solid)
- Next stop: Leeds, Friday July 18, Sounds of the City – their only other UK headline date in 2025
💀 The Riff Report’s Final Thought:
You can keep your stadium sellouts and AI hologram bands. Give us Funeral for a Friend, a wet Welsh castle, and 2,000 people screaming their bloody hearts out.
THAT’S live music, mun. 🤘🏴🔥
