Circa Survive, PVRIS @ 170 Russell, Melbourne (20/09/2015)
As an early PVRIS fan I went along to the Sunday night show in Melbourne knowing all the words to every song, and I quickly realised I wasn't the only one. The three piece rock band from America were gracing the stages in Australia for the first time as guests of Circa Survive.
This was my first time reviewing while also photographing a show, and so for the first three songs I was fairly zoned out while I weaved in and out along the small and crowded photo pit, concentrating on getting the shots! Their second song for the night was St Patrick, one of my personal favourites and also a crowd pleaser. By the third song, a fan in the front row gifted frontwoman Lyndsey Gunnulfsen a soft toy penguin. Lyndsey wanted to give it a gender neutral name, so Spencer was the winning name via audience vote.
Song four was hugely popular song Holy, which had an instant raise of phones to the air while the audience videoed and snapped photos of more so than any other song so far. Followed by Holy was White Noise, by the second verse the crowd was helping Lyndsey remember the lyrics in a funny moment of forgetfulness. Final song for Pvris that night was My House, which was by far the most energetic and lively track played from the set. By the end of the song, Lyndsey's incredible range and live performance had been proven to be just as amazing as the recorded tracks, and they were applauded offstage with huge smiles on their faces. Hopefully it won't be long before they're back in Australia with their own headlining tour!
Circa Survive were greeted to the stage with a warm sense of return. While waiting for them to come onstage, I had overheard countless conversations from ticket holders reminiscing about the last Circa Survive show. The entire setlist was a fabulous mix of songs from all albums, old and new.
Frontman Anthony Green leaped and dashed around the stage in his usual stage form, and interacted with fans in-between songs. During Glass Arrows Anthony gave his mic to the crowd to cover the group vocal section of the song. Immediately after Anthony paid tribute to patron, Yasmin, who's vocals had been most dominate. He commended her for being the best audience member to have sung that part of the song to this date, and had a chat to her about her own band.
Towards the lower end of the setlist, older favourites like In Fear and Faith and Stop The Fu*king Car were played to a very receptive crowd. Circa Survive were cheered out for an encore, and were faced with something completely unexpected.
Green jumped onto the drum kit and tore into a drum solo. This got a few cheers and laughs from the crowd, Green then picked up a bass guitar, and announced 'This next song is called Sex Dungeon!' There was silence, then a few laughs, until a few bars of the song were played and Green put on a voice and growled some god awful lyrics I can't remember now. The audience roared with laughter as it kept going, and Green broke into a large grin as he joked that support band PVRIS had wrote it.
Moments later, the laughter was replaced by a revived energy as the band broke into Get Out, the perfect encore song.
The night ended on a huge note, both figuratively and literally with Anthony Green's impressive vocal range still as piercing and strong as ever.
Lizzie Skyllas
This was my first time reviewing while also photographing a show, and so for the first three songs I was fairly zoned out while I weaved in and out along the small and crowded photo pit, concentrating on getting the shots! Their second song for the night was St Patrick, one of my personal favourites and also a crowd pleaser. By the third song, a fan in the front row gifted frontwoman Lyndsey Gunnulfsen a soft toy penguin. Lyndsey wanted to give it a gender neutral name, so Spencer was the winning name via audience vote.
Song four was hugely popular song Holy, which had an instant raise of phones to the air while the audience videoed and snapped photos of more so than any other song so far. Followed by Holy was White Noise, by the second verse the crowd was helping Lyndsey remember the lyrics in a funny moment of forgetfulness. Final song for Pvris that night was My House, which was by far the most energetic and lively track played from the set. By the end of the song, Lyndsey's incredible range and live performance had been proven to be just as amazing as the recorded tracks, and they were applauded offstage with huge smiles on their faces. Hopefully it won't be long before they're back in Australia with their own headlining tour!
Circa Survive were greeted to the stage with a warm sense of return. While waiting for them to come onstage, I had overheard countless conversations from ticket holders reminiscing about the last Circa Survive show. The entire setlist was a fabulous mix of songs from all albums, old and new.
Frontman Anthony Green leaped and dashed around the stage in his usual stage form, and interacted with fans in-between songs. During Glass Arrows Anthony gave his mic to the crowd to cover the group vocal section of the song. Immediately after Anthony paid tribute to patron, Yasmin, who's vocals had been most dominate. He commended her for being the best audience member to have sung that part of the song to this date, and had a chat to her about her own band.
Towards the lower end of the setlist, older favourites like In Fear and Faith and Stop The Fu*king Car were played to a very receptive crowd. Circa Survive were cheered out for an encore, and were faced with something completely unexpected.
Green jumped onto the drum kit and tore into a drum solo. This got a few cheers and laughs from the crowd, Green then picked up a bass guitar, and announced 'This next song is called Sex Dungeon!' There was silence, then a few laughs, until a few bars of the song were played and Green put on a voice and growled some god awful lyrics I can't remember now. The audience roared with laughter as it kept going, and Green broke into a large grin as he joked that support band PVRIS had wrote it.
Moments later, the laughter was replaced by a revived energy as the band broke into Get Out, the perfect encore song.
The night ended on a huge note, both figuratively and literally with Anthony Green's impressive vocal range still as piercing and strong as ever.
Lizzie Skyllas