North East indie quartet Far Pacific made their long awaited return to Sheffield to the top of the bill at Record Junkie last month. Bassist Matt sat down to talk to Forge ahead of the show, barely holding in his excitement for the gig, describing the last time they played in Sheffield being “absolutely class”.
Despite being opposed to the idea of comparing the band to other artists, Matt mentioned how the bands sound is inspired from older bands including The Smiths and Dexys midnight runners, as well as newer artists including The Vaccines, which proved evident in the set, which had a high energy and light hearted feel to it.
Matt described how the set would be “a rollercoaster of emotions”, and he certainly wasn’t wrong, starting with high octane ‘indie bangers’ to start the set in the shape of ‘I don’t really know’ as well as a upbeat cover of ‘Feel Good Inc’ to get the crowd going, with front man Patrick getting the crowd to come closer to the stage joking that they ‘didn’t bite’. The set continued by dropping down to slower piano ballads, including single ‘Love Bomb’- the most recent Single released from the band. The set also featured an impromptu version of Bohemian Rhapsody which I’m not totally convinced was planned, however the crowd certainty enjoyed it.
The strong relationship between the members of the band was evident throughout, with the band joking around with each other on stage. Matt (bass) and James (guitar/trombone/ piano/synths) have played music together from the age of about 12, playing punk covers and new wave material with Matt being the singer, which worked well he exclaimed “until I was like 14/15 and I realised I couldn’t quite sing so we decided to get some other people in (Patrick and Aaron) and then we started writing our own tunes as ‘Far Pacific at the age of 15/16”.
The band had an emphatic end to the set with an impressive cover of 90’s dance anthem ‘Insomnia’ by Faithless. The band completely made the song their own, with the introduction of the trombone gave a great end to the set with the crowd dancing and singing along, a great end to an excellent gig.
