Funeral Party @ Las Vegas HOB0

With the amount of energy filling the room, you would be pretty surprised to find out that Funeral Party wasn’t the headliner this past Saturday at the House of Blues in Vegas. Rather than the usual impatient stances, background conversations, and crossed arms you often see in abundance during opening acts, nearly every one in the crowd had thrown their hands in the air and were clapping and jumping in unison. In short, after seeing Funeral Party live, I went away really liking them; they put on a seriously awesome show. Continue reading for the rest of my review and more photos. The full photo set can be found here.

Chad Elliott seemed to have the ability to keep every one in the room paying attention to his every move. This might have something to do with the fact that he rarely stood still, but could instead be found constantly moving across the stage, pulling apart the mic stand, and reaching his hands out to the imploring crowd.  Despite his attention grabbing antics, I really think that what captured the crowd was the very real passion that was truly tangible in his words. The energy and emotion he brought to the stage easily transferred over to the crowd, and I think this is what really did it for me. James Torres only added to this energy with his focused and driving guitar playing. He seemed to be putting everything he had into every single note he played. Kimo Kauhola, on bass, balanced out the dynamic with his cool, relaxed demeanor and on point playing. The touring drummer, Robert Shaffer, was a favorite of mine, and really caught my attention, as he pushed every song forward with his intensity and a smile that never left his face; at one point he actually stood up from his seat, bringing the crowd to thrash around with an even greater level of energy. Overall, I was really impressed, and had a great time during Funeral Party’s performance. I definitely plan on seeing them again when I get the chance, and I would really recommend checking them out when this tour gets to your town. You can find the full list of tour dates here. And be sure to give their debut album, The Golden Age of Knowhere, a good listen on iTunes.