
The Faim + Hot Milk @ o2 Institute 7th December 2019
Up and coming Australian pop rock band The Faim are back playing their second UK tour of the year, and on this December leg, they have brought out Manchester-based pop punks Hot Milk to warm up the crowd for them.
And warm up the crowd they did. With duel vocals from Hannah Mee and Jim Shaw, within no time at all they had the crowd bouncing in the packed O2 Institute 2. With latest single ‘Candy Coated Lies’ being a highlight, during their set bass player Tom Patton (a home town show) jumped down onto the barrier and then crowd surfed with the energetic crowd. Playing ‘Wide Awake’ and ‘Are you feeling alive’, before the set ended, Hannah followed on from Tom’s crowd surfing by getting into the middle of the crowd to sing-a-long with them.
After several successful festival appearances this year and a spot supporting the Foo Fighters, Hot Milk are going to have a great 2020.
With an early’ish stage time of 20.30 The Faim take to the stage playing ‘Tongue Tie’ the first track from their debut album ‘State Of Mind’. This was quickly followed by the anthemic ‘Amelie’ and ‘Beautiful Drama’. There’s more than a nod to Panic at the Disco to their sound but they still have very much their own identity.
Lead Singer Josh Raven prowled the stage like someone that’s born to be there. With his leather trousers, animal print shirt and long hair flowing, he had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand. The tempo was kept high until a stripped-back version of ‘Worlds apart’ that featured Stephen on the piano and Josh with a more softer vocal to the stadium rock songs of the rest of the set before the rest of the band joined in, bringing the song to a climatic finish.
The pace picked back up with ‘Saints and Sinners’ and ‘My Heart needs to Beat’ and didn’t drop for the rest of the set.
This was their second headline visit to Birmingham this year, after selling out the O2 Academy 3 earlier in the year and now selling out the Institute 2. I’m pretty sure it won’t be long before they are selling out much, much bigger venues, The Faim are an arena rock band waiting to happen.
Personally for me I had wished they had played ‘Where the river runs’ but with so many great songs for a young band it’s hard to be able to fit everything in, and I’m sure next time they will be back playing a longer set, in a bigger venue, that they very much deserve to be playing.
Review and Photos: Andy Watson