25-09-2010 Fun Lovin' Criminals - Tempelores Magazine

Supports: The Chemists; Venue: Tivoli Oudegracht, Utrecht (Netherlands)
By: Sabine van Gameren

Fun Lovin’ Criminals made themselves a name through the years. No wonder this concert was sold out in no time.

Support came from the British group The Chemists. Not really the most likely match with the Fun Lovin’ Criminals. It’s better to imagine that these guys attract a young female audience with their typical catchy pop rock songs. Nevertheless the show was ok. A bit messy, in the sound, but also in the set list. A lot of their songs sound alike and in the 30 minutes they played, I was expecting to come with an ultra sensible ballad. Vocalist Steve has the voice for that, maybe just him and a guitar for just one song would bring the girls to tears. Now they were kind of misplaced in the show and completely misunderstood. Not the best act to see in this place right now.

The Chemists

Fun Lovin Criminals are not so regular as their support was. A mix different genres, rock meets hiphop. Their lyrics seem to refer to the criminal side of life (what’s in the name, of course) quite often, vocalist Huey makes himself look like a mobster as well and this sets the tone. They are quite some characters and as it seems they know how to bring this into the venue. In the start of the show the drums were quite overwhelming, but not for long. Besides some minor technical issues the band hardly felt interrupted and got quite strong through their set.
There are really dedicated fans in the audience. Some of them walking around with photomaps full of photo’s of the band and them, live shots and other memorable material as tickets for example. The band selves seems to be aware of these fans in the crowd and it certainly stroke their ego. Of course their break though hit “Scooby Snacks” got played but this is not the highlight of the evening as most of the people were dancing rocking and enjoying themselves thought the whole set and did not seem to have bought their ticket on the base of one or two hit songs. So it seems like the Fun Lovin’ Criminals have credibility. No surprise we’ll see them returning here some time again. They have set a splendid show here.

Fun Lovin Criminals

Photo’s by: Sabinevangameren.com