A great way to shake-off the rain on a wet night is to thrash around to some urgent hardcore punk. The crowd that swelled within the sold-out Corner Hotel on Friday night did just that as The Bronx made a triumphant return to Melbourne.
After the Nation Blue had warmed up the stage with some heavy dirge, the Bronx appeared in front of a throng erupting with applause, frontman Matt Caughthran holding his arms questioningly in front of him, looking pleasantly surprised (“What’s up motherfuckers” was his initial overture).
What ensued was chaos. The crowd moshed and headbanged with abandon, sang/screamed the choruses unrepentantly, punters surfed a sea of hands and stage dived like Olympic gymnasts. The band dealt in waves of bellicose hardcore, Caugthran bouncing around the stage like a boxer, bassist Brad Magers whipping his lengthy locks fiercely, joining the flurry of the offstage headbangers.
Caugthran’s sandpaper vocals, coarser than usual due to admitted partying (“of the last forty-eight hours, we’ve slept like four”) was an apt voice to the inflammatory music. His banter between the songs was genial and fervent, whether introducing tracks (“I didn’t expect this band thing to last past high-school and first album but we’re up to album number three – this is to show that you don’t need to be played on the radio to make it in the music business – This song is They Will Kill Us All!’”) or just letting the mob feel his appreciation (“We don’t get this kinda crowd in our hometown so thanks for coming down, man”).
The band itself was in top flight, whether putting the pedal to the metal on the incendiary Kill My Friends, speeding up the chainsaw riffing on Knifeman or turning it down a notch for the sing-along favourite – White Guilt. The songs on the more rock’n’roll oriented recent album, The Bronx III, such as Young Bloods or Past-Lives were suffused with restless energy but were no match for the raw hunger of the previous releases. Tracks like They Will Kill Us All and History’s Stranglers were grabbed ruthlessly and flung out the speakers.
As the final notes were played and promises of a swift return made by the band before they departed, the crowd milled on for a while anticipating an encore. This was unfortunately not to be as the house lights and background music turned on so the mob slowly disbanded. However, no-one would have left the Corner unsatisfied as the Bronx put on a stellar show that leaves us hoping that they would honor their promise of “coming back soon.”
to listen to their music now on 
