The Butterfly Effect, TrialKennedy, Sleep Parade @ UCUBar, Canberra, (24/10/08)

Mon 27th Oct, 2008 in Gig Reviews

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It was a night all about rock and three piece Melbourne band Sleep Parade kicked it all off to a building crowd at the UCU Bar. The band fitted in nicely with their heavy emotional rock style, effectively warming up the early birds. While many in the crowd were getting stuck into the alcopops at the bar (or more like a canteen really), there were certainly plenty of others keen to enjoy the set. The band featured tracks from their debut album Things Can Always Change including their single, Passengers.

The crowd was only getting bigger and it was looking to be a packed evening when the more upbeat rockers Trial Kennedy banged out a fiery set of fantastic explosive tracks, including one of their more well known tracks Neighbours. Front man Tim was awesome, belting out every track with such power and reverberation but without any sign of his voice failing. There weren’t too many breaks between songs, barely giving the audience enough time to show their appreciation with applause. Many in the audience were taking happy snaps and having a bit of dance particularly when they played Colour Day Tours currently on high rotation on Triple J, which pulled in more viewers. The guys were in fine form musically and physically with the word “hot” springing to the minds of the ladies in the crowd and with some thinking they were in luck when Tim revealed guitarist Stacey was single. The handsome lads ended their set with a classic rock out and by this stage the audience was ready to feel the effect.

The Butterfly Effect didn’t make Canberra wait too long before they commenced their set but they did give the audience enough time to admire the illustrations on stage of naked young ladies with serpents and apples. Before entering the stage, the Jaws theme music preceded them which gave fans enough time to rush and bunch up near the stage to rock out to one of their favourites. The band was welcomed with cheers and applause as they started out with new stuff from their latest album Final Conversation of Kings, including Worlds On Fire which has a Muse like feel to it but with front man Clint’s signature high pitched vocal.

It wasn’t too long before they delved into the back catalogue from Imago and Begins Here as Clint recognised his Canberra fans like the old stuff. Before we knew it, shirts were off in the crowd with one guy sporting his tanned and tattooed torso while others chose to crowd surf. The audience was made up of your average Bogan, hot babes and just plain old rock lovers. It was at the point when Slow Descent came on that I started fearing for my life but the crowd was well behaved and the evening turned out to be reasonably uneventful in terms of felonies, with only one fellow getting told off for propping himself onto his mate’s shoulders.

Clint was warming up as he took off his “captain of the voyage of rock” jacket to go absolutely mental on stage. The drumming was an absolute pleasure to watch as Ben with his well manicured beard makes it look all so easy. Other wonderfully rocking tracks played were In These Hands, Reach and of course Gone. The fans were clearly satisfied and probably stopped off at the merch desk to pick up one of those odd looking Australian flags where the stars are replaced with The Butterfly Effect logo – merchandising never ceases to amaze.