Check out all the photos from the gig here!
Shihad are veterans of the Australian music scene, one of New Zealand’s finest ever musical exports. Their popularity has waned a little in recent years, but all that is set to change with new album Beautiful Machine. On the first night of the tour in the rough and tumble Bar 388, tattoos, torn jeans and black shirts abound, and Shihad prove they’re still as good as ever at rocking out and feeding off the energy of the crowd.
There’s a surprisingly healthy crowd in for opening band Calling All Cars, and the tiles on the roof of the venue are shaking with every pound of the drums. Calling All Cars are definitely better than your average punk band, elevated by the use of good tight hooks and frontman Haydn ’s well delivered and paced vocals. All The Lucky Ones is slightly poppier than the rest of the Cars’ material, and when Haydn’s requests for everyone to dance aren’t met, he plunges down into the crowd to deliver some vocals, and gets a huge cheer for his troubles. Radio single Hey You gets a big response, and Haydn ups the intensity by bringing his mic stand down into the crowd for the last song, and a circle of moshing punters forms around him. If Calling All Cars continue to deliver shows of this passion and intensity, they’re going to be huge.
Young And Restless, by comparison, are already famous, having had success in Triple J’s Unearthed competition, and a well received debut album produced by Shihad drummer Tom Larkin. Their high speed rock songs are much more danceable, and Karina Utomo delivers her vocals with a fiery vengance, screeching but never squealing. Many of the songs from tonight are dedicated to their fellow performers, and one even for Susie from I Heart Hiroshima, who is playing around the corner tonight at the Zoo. Josh Weller ’s guitar work is excellent, especially on the barrelling Dirty Kicks. The swelling crowd loves it all, and the voracious Utomo feeds off that energy, and during the last song she even crowd surfs while singing. They could do with a few more songs which have a consistent sound all the way through the song, but there’s no denying these kids love to rock.
It’s been too long since Shihad came to Brisbane, but tonight’s packed out Bar 388 shows they’ve still got some pretty good pulling power. They open with the first two songs from Beautiful Machine, One Will Hear The Other and Rule The World, which packs a huge opening punch, but fades a little in the main body. Early hit My Mind Sedate gets the crowd moshing in earnest, making following track Chameleon sound soft by comparison. Shihad’s new material is still the great rock we’ve come to expect, but when played side by side, the earlier songs definitely pack a heftier punch. But, while Shihad have always sounded polished in recorded format, tonight’s grungey bar setting provides the perfect atmosphere for the boys to dirty up their sound a little.
Tonight’s version of All The Young Fascists is a little sloppy, but the big chunky chords of Pacifier are always welcome. John Toogood is in his usual fine form – there is noone in the industry today with as much passion and verve, and his audience-friendly rock songs provide plenty of opportunities for singing along. This is especially true for the special acoustic version of Run which is played tonight – Toogood feeds off the crowd and vice versa, turning a pretty good rock show into a great sensory experience. We get a debut performance of Waiting Round For God, as well as older song The Metal Song, which had never been played live before tonight. If All The Young Fascists was a little loose, Comfort Me is as good as I’ve ever seen it played, and gives guitarist Phil Knight and drummer Tom Larkin a chance to shine. Meanwhile, bassist Karl Kippenberger feeds off the crowd, gesturing constantly to get the mood up and jumping – even if his bass playing wasn’t excellent, you’d love to have him on stage just for the vibe.
The boys wrap up the main set with the Queens-Of-The-Stone-Age-ish Count It Up, the danceable Wait And See, and new song The Bible And The Gun. After a short break, they return with Vampires, before closing out the night with breakthrough single Home Again. From anyone else, that might feel like crowd-pandering, but it’s a staple of the Shihad set, and these boys are as committed to their back catalogue as they are to their new material. The crowd leaves the packed bar, collectively gasping for breath, and clearing the ringing from their ears – Shihad have done it again.
