Psycroptic, Double Dragon,Truth Corroded,Red Dawn @Fowler's Live, Adelaide(28/11/08)

Sun 30th Nov, 2008 in Gig Reviews

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Knowing the fickleness of the Adelaide metal scene, in relation to bands from elsewhere that play here regularly, and in relation to particular local acts that play around the traps fairly often, I was expecting a really small turn-out to Psycroptic on Friday night. I was right on the money; and although it wasn’t good by any stretch, it was nice to see that my intuition was correct.

Rocking up to Fowler’s at a bit after 8.30 pm – and noticing that the place had a bit of an echoey, empty vibe about it, at least from the outside – I got in and realised that we’d already missed the first band, A Red Dawn, and that the second band, Truth Corroded, were already on stage.

Fowler’s wasn’t completely empty but it was a long way from even a third full. There was a scattering of people sitting at tables in the main bar area, there was hardly anybody outside in the courtyard or out the back of the venue; and the band room had such a small amount of punters in it that you could easily have rounded them up and put them into a bus with room to spare.

Truth Corroded are one of the first bands that I ever saw after moving to Adelaide about ten years ago; I thought they were good back then, fell out of love with their sound a couple of years later, and then fell out of touch with their music entirely. This year has been a year of rediscovery on that score, for which I am actually really glad. Their stage presence was undeniable; they were tight, professional, and much heavier than I expected. Their camaraderie was an absolute pleasure to behold, and they played hard even though there were bugger-all people present: something that always wins kudos from me because there is nothing worse than going to a tiny show where the bands make you wish you were at home on the couch.

Frontman Jason has always had a way with a crowd, and has a comfortable, easy way of relating with an audience that many other bands ought to be jealous of: whether the crowd is huge or pissweak, it doesn’t matter – the interaction is always consistent.

Following Truth Corroded was *Double Drago*n. Admittedly, the more you see a band throughout a year, the harder and harder it becomes to review them. They become ubiquitous, especially in a small town like Adelaide.

However, I must admit that because I have seen Double Dragon so much in the past year or two, I’ve been able to see how they’re moving forwards in terms of their performances. As I’ve mentioned in other reviews, this band have started to move out of their metalcore influences and are performing material that is much strongly on the side of melodic death metal.

Although I hadn’t been keen to see these guys again so soon, they surprised me by giving a really strong performance. The band played well, and Gardiner’s growls are getting stronger, which is good. I must state that am really not hell keen on the clean vocals, though. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to see a band trying to do something a bit different, but when the vocals are flat it can destroy the whole thing. If you attempt clean vocals you’ve really got to hit the notes right on the head because it’s far more obvious to everybody when you don’t.

After a relatively short break, Psycroptic hit the stage. If you read my previous review of these guys, from Against the Grain, you’ll know that their last show in Adelaide was shite, that I was not impressed by it at all. Hence, I was feeling in rather a critical frame of mind about their impending set.

Psycroptic played at Fowler’s as part of their album promotion tour for the recently released (Ob)servant, their first full-length album since signing to Nuclear Blast this year. The tour is hitting some incredible places throughout Australia, including regional centres like Mt Gambier.

Something happened that makes the job so worthwhile: Psycroptic played the best set I’ve seen them play in a very long time. It was fast, brutal, very heavy, and full – absolutely overflowing – with aggressive energy. Apparently they had their own sound tech on board, too, which makes a huge difference: it was probably among the best I’ve heard at Fowler’s. Ever.

The set included material from their most recent album, but they also blasted their way through a stack of old shit, including one track that I have been absolutely hanging to hear live for a long time: Carnival of Vulgarity from their album Isle of Disenchantment.

In fact, I enjoyed their set so much, I did a very rare thing for me these days and was up right at front of stage banging my head with the best of them! Great stuff.

This was a great gig, and I headed up to Enigma afterwards totally pumped for the rest of the night. Shame there was f-k all people there – but maybe Adelaide just needs to harden the f-k up and realise that supporting local acts, even if you have seen them before, means that we will get more shows in the long run. There might be a lot of international gigs coming up; but if you don’t support your own, then there are few international bands that would be willing to go the distance either.

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