FACT at The Islington Academy
FACT – Islington Academy – 24 May 2010
Words by Brendan Monteiro
Japanese noise warriors FACT are in town and tonight is a momentous occasion for the boys from the east as today marks the UK release of their third full length. It seems fitting that a sushi bar is next to the venue tonight and 1kg of raw fish later I find myself inside the venue. With a sudden rise in popularity from Japanese music I am a little dumbfounded as to why the venue isn’t heaving but the small mass that has congregated in front of the stage seem amped to the point where any sound, movement or light flash results in a cheer for the band to start. So excited is this crowd that there is a full on call of “we want FACT” while the sound engineer is still busy trying to get his mix in order.
With a crowd on the brink of a mini riot Eiji makes his way behind his kit to a roar from the crowd and utters “holy shit”, clearly this is a big deal to FACT. As with any band that I haven’t heard before, I like to do a bit of research and upon hearing FACT I get the vibe that they are really energetic with a prominent melodic emphasis in their music. The first song they play is an ambient array of sounds that builds till an eventual scream burst through, with this the fans gathered around the stage explode into a raging mini pit. You would think that with such a small amount of people that this level of participation from the crowd would be impossible but I guess I was wrong. By the time they roll into the third song of their set the adolescent pit is circling with fury and Hironobu seems to bask in the fact that a crowd, even though relatively small, are showing so much admiration for his band. Their songs really do have that energy I felt with their recorded material and the riffage between the two guitarists is pretty solid for such a young band (young in the sense that they have only been in the international eye for a small amount of time) but there is just something missing that I can’t put my finger on. The have good songs, good interaction with the crowd and the sound is pretty decent too except for the vocals being dampened by the other instruments at times, but there is just something that holds me back from saying it was amazing. On the plus side FACT show the promise for growth and I think it’s a band that if you don’t know about yet, you should definitely keep an eye out for.
