Escape the Fate @ HQ, Adelaide(26/04/11)

Fri 29th Apr, 2011 in Gig Reviews

I took me a little while to figure out just what Las Vegas band Escape the Fate were all about. Between the way they look, their sound, and how their bio describes them…they seemed to be full of contradictions which made it difficult to categorize them right away.

My first proper listen to ETF came via the song This War is Ours from the album of the same name. With its ‘Cookie Monster’ style death metal vocals in the verses I assumed that this band was hardcore, in a similar style to Parkway Drive, even though the chorus was quite catchy. It wasn’t until I heard the track Ten Miles Wide from the same album that I really started to take notice. This track was more of a fun rock song and featured guest vocals from Buckcherry singer Josh Todd. This was more my style than the heavy hardcore sound so I gave the album a proper listen and looked at their bio on their website. This just added to my confusion. Their bio compares them to glam rock legends Motley Crue, their album actually sounded more like post- hardcore rockers The Used, and their look seemed to be a cross between glam, emo, and heavy metal.

I eventually became a big fan of their album This War is ours (their second), so when it came time to check out ETF live, I was very excited and also very curious to see whether their live show would make me understand exactly what they were all about.
The support band on this tour of Australia, in support of Escape the Fate’s self-titled third album, was San Diego band Pierce the Veil. Their similar sound and style to the headliner’s ensured that they went down very well with the young crowd at this all-ages gig and it sounded like they already had quite a following as they managed to get a fair bit of crowd participation happening during their energetic set.

Not long after the support set finished, the crowd were screaming for the headliners, Escape the Fate. It wasn’t long into the set that everything seemed to make a little more sense to me. The band’s glam rock influences may not have been overly obvious in their music, but they did come through in the live show. With the drum kit set up closer to the stage compared with the usual headlining band at HQ, this left room behind the kit for a walkway for the band, turning the small HQ stage into more of arena-rock style stage, which worked well with the way the band performed. The set definitely had that big old school rock vibe to it, which made it a lot more fun than if they had gone with the all too serious emo vibe which is sadly far too common these days. The band seemed to fly through the set with energy to spare, keeping the crowd pumped from start to finish. Frontman Craig Mabbitt was especially entertaining as he threw himself into the crowd only to be transported via crowd surfing safely back to the stage to continue mid-way through a song and then later to leap from the stage, arriving a minute later at the back of the room to order a drink from the bar at the back of the room, sing half the song from the back of the venue, and then fly once again over the heads of the crowd once again to rejoin the rest of the band onstage. Song-wise, the aforementioned song This War is Ours was a big highlight with the crowd as it has the big sing-along chorus which had the room participating in full voice, and Zombie Dance and Gorgeous Nightmare from the latest album were highlights for me as they worked well as big sounding, live arena- rock songs.

I didn’t actually take notice of the time that Escape the Fate hit the stage but it all seemed to be over all too soon and we were out of there by ten-thirty which seemed a little earlier than I was expecting. I’m not quite sure if the band played a short set or whether it just seemed really quick because it was so much fun. In any case, everyone looked pretty exhausted when it was all over, and it was fair to say that both Pierce the Veil and Escape the Fate put on great, energetic live performances which seemed to satisfy the crowd well enough. Whether or not these bands do actually go on to play large arenas or just continue to play the smaller venues, they certainly played like they were performing an arena show and would do very well to fill the larger Entertainment Centre type stages if they got the chance in the future.