House vs Hurricane @ BlackBettys, Perth (17/03/11)

Mon 21st Mar, 2011 in Gig Reviews

Hundreds of punters flocked to Black Bettys on a Thursday night to celebrate St Patrick’s day the Oh Snap way with help from local Perth lads Fall from Glory, Adelaide’s Nazarite Vow, England’s Your Demise and Melbourne’s House vs Hurricane.

With such a strong line up and tickets being sold on a ‘first come, first served’ basis, you would expect a decent line. But nothing could prepare people for what would greet them as they arrived at Black Bettys. Unless you had arrived before 8pm, you would be stuck in a line that stretched as far as the eye could see. Excitement levels were high, and people were restless. Some punters decided to make the wait in line more interesting by starting sing alongs and Mexican waves. When the doors finally opened at 9:15pm a collective sigh of relief was breathed.

It was clear to see the organizers had done all they could to remind people that it was St Patricks day; green balloons littered the floor, and four leaf clovers hung from the ceiling. Some people were already in the spirit of things and wearing green. They were sprinkled amongst the regular sea of black, which usually infiltrates Black Betties on a Thursday night. In between the bands’ sets DJ’s played the usual mix of hardcore and pop punk tunes, but tonight they also threw in some Celtic punk, such as Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly, which got the crowd sporting some traditional folk dance moves.

First on the bill were local post hardcore group Fall From Glory. As vocalist Mitch Paton screeched and howled over the clean guitar melodies, he was not afraid to get up close and personal with the fans who were brave enough to stand directly in front of the stage. This music was made to mosh to, with plenty of breakdowns. But apparently punters were saving their energy for the bands to come.

Next up were Adelaide’s Nazarite Vow. They took proceedings in a heavier direction. The focus of the music being on rhythm rather than melody, they stuck more to a traditional Hardcore sound. Dan Casey’s angry growls over heavily distorted guitar driven music and strong beats had the dancers out in force and fighting off invisible ninjas. The majority of songs played can be found on their 2009 EP Conspirators. Fans of the band were treated to a new song and assured that they have a new album to look forward to, which will hopefully be released by the end of the year.

People moved closer to the stage in anticipation for first time visitors to Australia, Your Demise. Hailing from the UK, Your Demise played a relentless high energy set. Thirty minutes is not really a lot of time to service a back catalogue spanning three albums. Fans since early in their career may have been disappointed with the setlist as the band played mainly songs off their most recent album The Kids we Used to be. Out of the nine songs played, only three were from their first two records.

The crowd went insane for the fast paced melodic hardcore. Throughout the set, punters were stage diving, hardcore dancing, riding their friends’ shoulders, clambering over one another to get their chance to scream into the microphone. When the first single Miles Away from the latest album was played, all of this seemed to happen simultaneously. An unexpected surprise occurred halfway through the title track when Mark Bawden of Break Even seemed to appear out of nowhere to add guest vocals. Hopefully they don’t wait so long before they visit our shores again.

Five minutes before the final act were due to start, the person in charge of the smoke machine went a little crazy. So much smoke shrouded the venue that is was difficult to see two meters ahead. As the smoke slowly cleared House vs Hurricane hit the stage. They dove straight into their electronic influenced post hardcore tunes. Ryan McLerie’s clean vocals were clear above the chugging bass lines and drums. Unfortunately Chris Dicker’s low growls were barely audible above the music. But this did not seem to matter as fans screamed every word back at the band. Arguably their biggest song to date Forfeiture attracted the biggest reaction. At one point, the crowd’s combined voice was so loud that they nearly drowned out the band.

Whenever the band shouted commands, the crowd complied without hesitation. Whether instructing fans to clap and sing along or attempting to start a ‘Wall of high fives’. This is basically a wall of death, but instead of running into one another at full speed, you run past one another and high five. An excellent idea, but it ended up turning into your average wall of death.

Their setlist was enough to keep every fan happy, with songs spread evenly across their career: Four songs from Forfeirture, three songs from Perspectives plus a new song from their forthcoming album.

The quality of all performances made it worth standing in the line for hours. Everyone who managed to make it inside the venue left satisfied.