Against Me!, Dead Riot, OffWith Their Heads @ The HiFi,Brisbane (05/05/2011)

Mon 9th May, 2011 in Gig Reviews

One thing you have to say about Against Me! is that they really love what they do – it’s so clearly evident in everything they do. Each member of the band is brimming with this explosive energy, and the crowd at the HiFi in Brisbane ate it up in some serious doses. There was no half measure here, the band played their set fast and furious.

Dead Riot do a good job of warming up the crowd for the headliners, with a great host of rockabilly songs that were big in foot tapping flavour. There are a couple of solos that, while not Chris Cheney-class, are still amazing. It’s a shame this Brisbane show is their last, with the band announcing their dissolution. They sure as hell go out in style though, matching the enthusiasm of Against Me!

Self confessed doomsayers Off With Their Heads are as passionate, but their songs lack substance, ranging from hard punk rock to metal nineties slammers. The crowd is not all that impressed, but the boys press on regardless for an hour of solid punk rock.

As Against Me! jumps straight into their first few songs, it’s immediately obvious the band treats their live shows like a trip to Wet N Wild. Lead singer Tom Gabel grins like a school kid who just stole the last cookie in the cookie jar. Bassist James Bowman conducts the audience like some mad punk-rock symphony of his own design. The drummer slashes at his kit like a Viking swings a battle-axe in battle. And lead guitarist James Bowman …well he was very good, but went unnoticed most of the evening due to being overshadowed by the rest of the band.

By their fourth song, White Crosses, Against Me! are playing with furious abandon, and the crowd loves it. Gabel yells out with glee, “I want to smash them all!” The central message of the evening, it would seem, is to incite rebellion.

Don’t Lose Touch again shows off the emotive singing of Gabel, but the brilliance of the backing vocals and tone of the guitars (arguably a major selling point for the band) is lost in this live setting. Perhaps it was just the HiFi, but the sound of the electric guitar, drums and bass was far too overwhelming to allow the vocals room to breathe.

Miami starts off with a solid drum thrashing that gets the crowd roaring, before a couple of songs later the band comes to their big gun – their latest single I Was a Teenage Anarchist . The crowd happily sings along to Gabel’s furious vocals, “Don’t you remember, when you were young and you wanted to set the world on fire?”

The Ocean from album New Wave hosts a great drumming interlude, where drummer Jay Weinberg attacks his kit. The resulting wave of noise is a chorus of what sounds like slamming doors. Animal is suitably carnivorous, as the mosh pit comes alive with crowd surfers and thrashing heads.

Other crowd favourites like T.S.R (This Shit Rules) leave the crowd roaring along in chorus with the band, and the band drinks the energy in. In the two hour set the band never shows signs of slowing. Sink, Florida, Sink ends the set before an encore of similar ferocity. The volume of the band was nearly matched by the ear-splitting volume of the crowd.