Deftones, Thrice, 18 Visions,Flyleaf @ Thebarton Theatre,Adelaide, (01/03/07)

Tue 6th Mar, 2007 in Gig Reviews

With the Soundwave Festival on its maiden journey to Australia, Adelaide was given a taste of some of the bands on the festival on this night at Thebarton Theatre. When doors opened for this concert there was an incredibly small crowd and it didn’t change for opening band Flyleaf.

Flyleaf are an Alternative Rock band from Texas and when they started playing there was only about 4 rows of people on the floor and a few people scattered around for this international band. Before coming to this I was quite skeptical at this band but with there set I grew to enjoy them more and grow a lot more respect for them. I think that the band had a good presence on stage and lead singer Lacey Mosley performed well live. Her voice and screams held up well on stage. Bassist Pat Seals brought the bands performance down with his topless testosterone fuelled antics that I’m sure everyone in the crowd noticed. The thing that I really respected about Flyleaf is that they knew hardly anyone was there too see them so they didn’t act as if the whole theatre was there too see them with the way they presented themselves and talked to the crowd. Mosley seemed quite humbled to be in Australia on the few times that she did speak. Flyleaf played for about 25 minutes of songs from their debut self-titled album.

This feeling of humbled, modest supports did not continue when Californian post-hardcore/metalcore outfit 18 Visions took to the stage. This band seemed had a lot of confidence with them onstage, particularly vocalist James Stephen Heart who seemed to be channeling a mixture between Axl Rose and Scott Weiland with his stage aura. The only bad part about this was that the sound didn’t match the band’s confidence on stage as it just wasn’t well performed and didn’t sound good. I think that the 18 Visions fans that were there would have been disappointed with this performance. 18 Visions played songs from there new self titled album which has took a steer from there respected hardcore sound and gone in a more glam rock style ala new Avenged Sevenfold. They finished off their sets with extended breakdowns and then before their final breakdown asked the crowd to open the pit up for which no one moved. Overall I think that 18 Visions should focus less on how they look and there moves on stage and more on how they are playing their music.

Then up next was Thrice. One of the best parts of the night was that Thrice were onstage before there set doing there own sound check. This was another confirmation of how great and modest these musicians really are. When this seminal & revolutionary post hardcore band hit the stage they opened up with Image of The Invisible from latest album Vheissu, this got some great crowd vocals going. Thrice really blew me away with this performance, they performed a really good live set and set themselves apart from a lot of the bands in this industry today. It was hard not to look away from Thrice front man and visionary Dustin Kensrue as he had an enigmatic presence. They played a variety of hardcore songs from The Illusion of Safety and The Artist in The Ambulance while playing more experimental art rock songs from Vheissu. These songs were really what made it so special live with songs such as The Earth Will Shake and Music Box for which the keys were played beautifully and hypnotically by Teppai Teranishi. Dustin Kensrue’s screams on the live stage were some of the best I have ever heard, as they are so distinctive, emotional and dominating, Eddie Breckinridge’s backups were also provided harmoniously and destructively. Thrice played crowd favorite’s Deadbolt, Cold Cash and Colder Hearts, The Artist In The Ambulance which got the mosh going. This was an extremely good support set by Thrice, which left me wanting more (they said that they will not be back in Australia again for at least 3 years) but ultimately was a great entrée to the main course of the night which was about to send the crowd in hysteria.

With the crowd eagerly awaiting the band most of this small crowd came for, Deftones, they came on with a huge lighting and electronic intro which sent everyone into the delight of anticipation which I’m sure got most of the main floor on the top of there toes. Then the band walked out, vocalist Chino Moreno stood on the edge of the stage and with a scream broke into Be Quiet and Drive and then My Own Summer (Shove It). This made the fans go crazy and even thought there was sound problems for these two songs. This was a great start to what everyone knew was going to be a memorable set for the fans. Moreno’s voice held up well on stage and proved to the crowd that after over a decade he still has it in him. Deftones showed there true melody when playing ‘Beware’ from new album Saturday Night Wrist which sent chills through my spine. They played crowd favorites such as Around The Fur (which was my favorite song from the set), Hole In The Earth, Digital Bath, Feiticeira, Knife Prty and Bored. A weird part of this set is that no songs off the self titled album were played while there was unpredictable songs like 7 Words and Back To School played. Moreno surprised me as he was quite well spoken to the crowd and kept them interested and also played around with the band in-between songs, at one point doing and impromptu cover of Bitches Aint Shit. The Songs from Saturday Night Wrist were played well and showed they could compete with old Deftones material on the live stage. This was a great enthusiastic performance from a band that proves they still have the passion and fury in them to compete with a lot of today’s new wave of bands.