The Butterfly Effect attract both people who wouldn’t usually see live music and seasoned gig-goers to their shows. Their ‘hard riffs, soft vocals’ approach to songwriting means that their music is ‘hard enough’ for guys, but soft enough that these guys feel safe enough to bring their girlfriends along. Combined with the commercial success of their last two albums, this explains the odd but pleasant crowd at the Tivoli tonight – every quiet black band t-shirt wearing guy was matched by a girl in a strappy dress with a Smirnoff Black in one hand and a mobile phone in the other.

The venue was at least two-thirds full when Sleep Parade began their set. The band had a huge sound for a three piece, and singer/guitarist Leigh Davies threw himself around the stage whilst bashing out hard rock from the Karnivool and Cog mould. Playing songs from their debut Things Can Always Change, highlights were single Carry On and an amazing guitar/vocal solo where Davies sung into the pickups of his guitar, feeding the signal into a pedal board that Iooked complicated enough to help out with air traffic control at Heathrow Airport.

“Sounds like these guys stole a Gyroscope b-side,” said my plus one as the carefully dressed Trial Kennedy launched into opener Hollowood. Singer Tim Morrison leaned on his microphone and guitarist Stacey Gray strutted the stage, both of them hocking up phlegm and spraying saliva over the rhythm section and probably the front row at least once every five minutes. As they played their way through almost the entirety of their album New Manic Art (a ridiculously long set for a support act), the amount of dry-humping and bum slapping between the band members on stage was akin to the behaviour of a group of private school boys – not a professional rock band aged in their twenties. The private school boy behaviour was made even more obvious when Morrison sung the praises of the headline act, calling them “a good bunch of c**ts.” Ooh! He said a swear word! Sure, the band was tight and they ‘rocked’ as well as a bunch of grown men looking and behaving like private school boys can, but really, that’s the minimum expected standard for any group playing at this level of the game. B minus, gentlemen. I expected a better performance from you. Pull your socks up and your heads in.

With Trial Kennedy offstage and assaulting punters with promotional material, the stage was transformed with large banners displaying the artwork of The Butterfly Effect’s new album, Final Conversation of Kings. These banners served the dual purpose of looking great and hiding the band’s amplifiers and laptop computer for samples.
Opening with the moody Muse-influenced World’s On Fire from the new album, singer Clint Boge sported a freshly cut mohawk and a particularly snappy navy blue sailor’s jacket – a far cry from the blue face paint and bare chest of the Begins Here era of the band. The lighting crew seemed to have a foolproof plan to help out any audience member who couldn’t pick out new songs from the old – new songs had purple lighting, old ones didn’t. Easy.

Playing the triple whammy of A Slow Descent, One Second of Insanity and new single The Window and The Watcher ten minutes into the set was a risky move, but luckily the band has a back catalogue large enough and a fan base dedicated enough to cross their fingers for album tracks and songs from their old EPs. The new songs were patiently and politely received, but it was definitely the older songs that punter and band member alike threw themselves into – quite literally in guitarist Kurt Goedhart’s case, who spent most of Reach playing amongst the crowd in the balcony. Man-mountain and bass player Glenn Esmond was the foundation of the performance – this man has got some seriously tight grooves and harmonies under his command, both displayed to stellar effect on newie “In These Hands”.
Dredging up The Cell from their first EP, Crave from Begins Here and Aisles of White and Gone from 2006’s Imago, the band left to cheers, crowd-surfing and that bloody purple light.