Feeder, London Brixton Academy

’s Grant Nicholas announces into the microphone to erputed cheers before launching into crowd favourite ‘Buck Rogers’.

Feeder are coming to the end of their 28-date triumphant ‘Silent Cry’ tour – the longest tour to date, and despite recent troubles (duly noted by Nicholas by aptly dedicating ‘Fires’ to their crew whose bus exploded in Carlisle) the band have soldiered on and into London’s Brixton Academy to play a mix of old and new hits to a sell-out crowd.

The show kicks off at 9.15pm after warm ups from Bristol’s The Chemists and metal darlings Fightstar. The crowd are chanting like it’s the FA Cup final, and Feeder enter the stage to a rapturous applause, before leaping head first into ‘We Are The People’. The band are in fine form tonight, particularly lead man Grant Nicholas, who has an excellent voice for this time of year (!)

The crowd appear to be quite resistant this evening, particularly fuelled to by the upstairs Circle, who have been forced to remain seated throughout the show. However, when the band erupt into storming anthem ‘Come Back Around’, a mini mosh-pit erupts in the stalls, and its participants begin to succumb to the sweaty atmosphere and are carried over the barrier to cool down.

Feeder treat their fans to a set-list of mainly old hits, with a few pickings from ‘Silent Cry’, (‘Tracing Lines’, ‘Who’s The Enemy’, ‘Fires’, ‘Into the Blue’ and ‘8.18’) which is surprising seeing as the tour is in support of the new album. ‘Just The Way I’m Feeling’ gets the biggest sing-a-long of the night, and bassist Taka Hirose gets so into the swing of things that he falls over one of the floor speakers. He jumps back into the song unscathed after a quick dusting off, and earns himself a laugh or two at his expense, from drummer Mark Richardson.

After romps through ‘Comfort in Sound’, ‘High’, and ‘Lost and Found’, the band exit the stage and return shortly after to football crowd-esque chants of “FEEDER! FEEDER!” The crowd cry for ‘Just A Day’, but Nicholas simply shakes his head and eases into an acoustic version of title track ‘Silent Cry’. Fans weren’t to be disappointed though, with treats of ‘Seven Days in the Sun’ (complete with Foo Fighters ‘On and On’ chanting in the outro) and ‘Tumble and Fall’ completing the encore.

Finally, the fans get their wish when the band jump into the familiar riff of ‘Just a Day’ – not even the seated fans were going to obey the rules for this song, and the whole venue is set alight by excited fans, with even the venue staff having a sneaky bop.

Feeder once again have proved that they have still got what it takes – and that the old tried and tested method of anthemic rock music still works wonders, even in this age of indie revellers.