Bring Me The Horizon @ HQ,Adelaide (12/05/09)

Thu 14th May, 2009 in Gig Reviews

Midweek gigs are always touch and go with school and work commitments, however there was still a reasonable size crowd at the armpit of Adelaide, HQ. Damn stinky as HQ is, the sound is usually of high quality, and would have to be one of Adelaide’s better mixed venues.

There was genuine anticipation for The Red Shore tonight, with numerous albeit clumsy attempts to get a chant going; three word band names aren’t the easiest chants to get up though. Beyond their opening track, Rise and Fall, from their debut album Unconsecrated, the bands energy waned. Singer Jamie Hope, seemed frustated by the lack of pit action, on more than a few occasions telling/asking the crowd to “wake the fuck up”. While The Red Shore are certainly competent at what they do, this set was hardly rememberable.

Canada’s Cancer Bats probably had the least to lose tonight, being in fairly stark contrast to the bands they were sandwiched between. Rather than pummelling and bowel rupturing break downs, Cancer Bats offer riff driven and stripped back songs with influences that span over hardcore, punk, rock and metal. It would great to see the band in front of more of their fans, as some songs would really benefit from an audience sing along. Frontman Liam Cormier is slightly reminiscent of Pantera’s Phil Anselmo, both in stage presence and appearance. This was all the more evident as he introduced the song Lucifer’s Rocking Chair in a very exaggerated southern rock drawl. Cancer Bats played their arses off, and deserved all the praise they received.

Spontaneous female screaming is one of life’s most puzzling phenomenoms, the theory is, that once one starts, they all start. While the hype about Bring Me The Horizon may or may not justify the screaming, it still remains a mystery as to how a bra ended up on stage. Singer Oliver Sykes seemed to be rather coy about the undergarment being onstage, and quickly tossed it to the back of the stage, perhaps it wasn’t his colour. Sykes had a bit to contend with, various missiles being lauched and on occassion hitting him and female crowd member running at him, only to be intercepted by security. Kevin Cameron of the now defunct I Killed The Prom Queen, filled in the on the now vacant second guitar. The crowd got what they came for tonight: massive break downs and Oliver Sykes.