Jericco were on early and displayed some exuberant stomping along to heavy basslines. The Middle Eastern flair of the band provided by the Oud (Egyptian Lute) was interesting enough to pique the interests of folk that came a bit too late to see their whole set.

Coerce came next along to a segment of talkback radio being played of the radio announcer being harassed. It was unclear what that was all about and whether it was connected to the band in any way. But the first song started out promising with power chords chugging along and plenty of rock lunges and head flicks. But from then on, unfortunately, the next few songs just sounded a bit choppy. With complicated time changes and so many progressions sounding not quite together, it just seemed like they weren’t on their A-game. They did seem to pick themselves up with the last 2 songs being so much tighter than the rest and showing the promise of what could have been.

The crowd was bubbling over with excitement and began chanting for Karnivool well before the homecoming kings took to the stage. And it was a dramatic entrance befitting their sound, with lights dimming and sirens blaring. Ian Kenny took to the effects mic for Set Fire To The Hive and we were introduced to his persona for the evening. It was slightly geek chic or even a little Forrest Gump, with one politically incorrect punter exclaiming to his mate that he looked a bit “retarded”. Nice. But perhaps that’s what a buttoned up shirt, thick googly-eye glasses and side-parted slicked back hair does to a man. But he was much cooler for the fact he pulled it off and used it to add something extra to the show.

The song also introduced the level of intensity we were to experience from start to finish of the show. The drums set the fast and furious pace and banged through time changes without leaving any of the other musicians behind. Simple Boy came next with emotion running high after a pretty xylophone start leading into a powerful bass groove and Kenny’s soaring vocal, a change from the fiercer sound of the first song. The different tonalities were combined effortlessly and showed the depth to Karnivool’s song writing.

All members were loving it with occasional smirks of delight and this enthusiasm wore off on the crowd. New Day inspired the first big sing-a-long before Shutter Speed hit the punters right in the guts and hearts especially for the guttural shouts of “I feel more than you”. The power bubbling around continued for Fear Of The Sky and crowd surfers emerged from the mosh between cowbells and discordant guitars. Later highlights eliciting similar emotive responses were Roquefort and Themata with crowd members singing out whether they knew the exact lyrics or not.

“Epic” is not a word to be used willy-nilly but it can be applied to Karnivool’s many songs that were more like storybooks progressing through various stages of different time, different energy and different emotion. Like mini roller-coaster rides in themselves the only pause came when the band left the stage before the encore. A calming blue lighted smoky atmosphere enveloped the stage before the echo-y bass and intense drums led into Change. This last song was a bit lower in pace and intensity than the songs before the encore, it felt a bit like the nap after lunch. Perhaps they wished to leave us in a peaceful state after such a forceful performance. Kenny commented that playing in Perth was like coming home to Mama’s cooking. Food wise Karnivool can be compared to some kind of degustation menu that has many flavours layered on top of one another. As apparently the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach and the gig was a sausage fest I think the band succeeded in winning them over.

see Stuo’s pictures here