Dead Letter Circus, Closure In Moscow, Wolves @ Manning Bar, Sydney (19/08/2011)
It was a welcome relief to enter into the Manning Bar and escape from the unusually vicious windy and rainy Sydney weather this evening. I guess it could also be considered unusual that this tour revolved around an environmental campaign to push for the Government to stop coal seam gas mining and wittily titled the ‘No Fracking Way’ tour. I guess a lot of the current crop of artists don’t feel it necessary to promote any sort of political agendas. Personally, I for one signed the petition and I hope that a number of my fellow punters did too. If you don’t know what the deal is regarding coal seam mining, please do a little research on it, but for now I won’t bore you with my politics or explain what it’s about, I’ve got a gig to review.
Wolves are an extremely fresh young act from our far flung capital city of Perth. I’ll admit there must be something in the water over there, as a number of talented artists and groups are emerging from out West. This band brings a unique take to the heavier rock scene by incorporating a violinist which adds an extra dynamic and depth to their aggressive sound. For my part I feel it’s a little bit of overkill, and probably superfluous as their music without it would still convey just as much. Also unfortunately for Wolves the sound mix tonight was all kinds of wrong, with far too much bass and kick drum drowning out every other instrument in the mix, which detracted from whatever intentions they had of conveying something distinctive. They have the potential to bring something slightly different to this alternative rock genre however they’ll easily need a few more live performances under their belt to compete with their peers tonight.
Melburnians Closure In Moscow have been kicking around the live traps for a while and it shows. Frontman Chris DeCinque comes onstage wearing what appears to be some sort of cape and immediately proceeds to swirl from one end of the stage to the other dragging your attention with him. Their energy is almost infectious and the sullen crowd was soon writhing to tracks like ‘Sweet#hart’ and ‘Kissing Cousins’. Their sound mix wasn’t as problematic as Wolves, which was lucky for them (and yes unfortunate for the openers) and thankfully by the close of their very quick set we were suitably pumped to see our headliners.
With some ambient music to build the tension, the moment Dead Letter Circus arrived onstage they erupt forth with ‘The Mile’ and transition through to ‘Reaction’ relatively quickly. The power and force that this band emits is unbelievable but you feel that being reciprocated and returned by the audience when during songs like ‘Disconnect And Apply’ and ‘One Step’ the band allows the crowd to sing along and the room is there shouting right back at the members onstage.
Vocalist and frontman Kim Benzie is exceptional in that his entire body language onstage commands your attention merely by standing so tall and at times rigid, then suddenly breaking free and blasting forth with a surge of the music. You can see he is consumed with not only the music but the words that he is singing, the control of both of these combined and how he projects these to the crowd and his vocals were in fine form, barely missing a note. During ‘Cage’ we’re treated to an interesting light show timed to a synth-backing track whilst Stewart Hill’s pulsating bass grows, it’s probably the only song that has some small respite during the verses as it grows to the chorus. ‘Next In Line’ brings the main part of the set to a thunderous close. We were treated to a three song encore with ‘Tremors’ played as homage to the fans that had been with the band from the beginning.
It’s nice to see even with their growing success overseas they still know where they came from. Joining them onstage for final track ‘This Is The Warning’ to assist Luke Williams’ main drumming with some added oomph was Ben from the recently disbanded MM9. A brash, loud and potent song that seemed to fit well with the overall political and revolutionary theme of the night, the band urged all of us in the room to take heed that it was necessary to prove we are still a democracy and will not allow the corporations to dictate. It’s refreshing to see a band that are willing to stand by their convictions but not feel it necessary to have to preach hard to their audience, because it’s quite clear that this crowd enjoyed every sweaty moment of the night.
Carina Nilma
Wolves are an extremely fresh young act from our far flung capital city of Perth. I’ll admit there must be something in the water over there, as a number of talented artists and groups are emerging from out West. This band brings a unique take to the heavier rock scene by incorporating a violinist which adds an extra dynamic and depth to their aggressive sound. For my part I feel it’s a little bit of overkill, and probably superfluous as their music without it would still convey just as much. Also unfortunately for Wolves the sound mix tonight was all kinds of wrong, with far too much bass and kick drum drowning out every other instrument in the mix, which detracted from whatever intentions they had of conveying something distinctive. They have the potential to bring something slightly different to this alternative rock genre however they’ll easily need a few more live performances under their belt to compete with their peers tonight.
Melburnians Closure In Moscow have been kicking around the live traps for a while and it shows. Frontman Chris DeCinque comes onstage wearing what appears to be some sort of cape and immediately proceeds to swirl from one end of the stage to the other dragging your attention with him. Their energy is almost infectious and the sullen crowd was soon writhing to tracks like ‘Sweet#hart’ and ‘Kissing Cousins’. Their sound mix wasn’t as problematic as Wolves, which was lucky for them (and yes unfortunate for the openers) and thankfully by the close of their very quick set we were suitably pumped to see our headliners.
With some ambient music to build the tension, the moment Dead Letter Circus arrived onstage they erupt forth with ‘The Mile’ and transition through to ‘Reaction’ relatively quickly. The power and force that this band emits is unbelievable but you feel that being reciprocated and returned by the audience when during songs like ‘Disconnect And Apply’ and ‘One Step’ the band allows the crowd to sing along and the room is there shouting right back at the members onstage.
Vocalist and frontman Kim Benzie is exceptional in that his entire body language onstage commands your attention merely by standing so tall and at times rigid, then suddenly breaking free and blasting forth with a surge of the music. You can see he is consumed with not only the music but the words that he is singing, the control of both of these combined and how he projects these to the crowd and his vocals were in fine form, barely missing a note. During ‘Cage’ we’re treated to an interesting light show timed to a synth-backing track whilst Stewart Hill’s pulsating bass grows, it’s probably the only song that has some small respite during the verses as it grows to the chorus. ‘Next In Line’ brings the main part of the set to a thunderous close. We were treated to a three song encore with ‘Tremors’ played as homage to the fans that had been with the band from the beginning.
It’s nice to see even with their growing success overseas they still know where they came from. Joining them onstage for final track ‘This Is The Warning’ to assist Luke Williams’ main drumming with some added oomph was Ben from the recently disbanded MM9. A brash, loud and potent song that seemed to fit well with the overall political and revolutionary theme of the night, the band urged all of us in the room to take heed that it was necessary to prove we are still a democracy and will not allow the corporations to dictate. It’s refreshing to see a band that are willing to stand by their convictions but not feel it necessary to have to preach hard to their audience, because it’s quite clear that this crowd enjoyed every sweaty moment of the night.
Carina Nilma