Strike Anywhere, Stolen Youth,God So Loved The World @Enigma Bar, Adelaide,(08/03/07)

Fri 9th Mar, 2007 in Gig Reviews

Half an hour before Adelaide Punk Hardcore band God So Loved The World took to the stage of Enigma Bar there was approximately 20 to 30 people scattered around the room. It was looking at this point that Strike Anywhere is not very well known & a lot of Enigma Bar would be left unfilled. When God So Loved The World took to the stage they it inspired to get the local core fans to get the pit moving. This band’s live dynamic seems to be aided by their diehard fans whom im sure a few of them were at this gig just for GSLTW. GSLTW vocalist Dan Jones has an extraordinary persona onstage & always try’s his hardest to get the crowd going, he also is still very smart on stage with his political & social messages before getting into songs. One of the negatives of this set was that members of the crowd yelling out anti-Christian remarks, which in my eyes seems to be against Strike Anywhere’s message of freedom regardless of what religious stance you, are. GSLTW played a solid set of their self-titled debut album before sending their fans into a frenzy closing with Not For Me.

 

Next up was Stolen Youth, this was the second time I have seen these guys in over a week and they definitely got a strong support from there cult following like local fans & started a large mosh. This is aided by their vocalist’s confidence & ability to excite & pump up a crowd. Stolen Youth faced sound difficulties throughout this set but battled on in the tradition of Punk. In between a song they invited their female friend on stage to talk about the importance of international women’s day, which I thought, was a great chance to do it & served a great purpose.  By this time the maximum crowd at this gig was in Enigma, it was a reasonable crowd but disappointing for such a great international band with strong supports. Before finishing there set bassist Footy walked offstage & had to come back onstage to finish off there set with crowd favorite Suicidal. It really made you laugh at the lack of professionalism but at the same time made you think about the strength of our scene and how there still is heart and true people in it.

 

Strike Anywhere then went onstage after keeping their fans waiting and kicked into the set with Detonation which was a great opener. After just one song you could tell these guys from Richmond, Virginia are a very enthusiastic live band. They really seemed humbled and appreciative to be playing in Adelaide, often saying how great our scene is, how great enigma bar is and how beautiful we all are. Strike played a mixture of songs between there three albums including new album Dead FM. They were an extremely energetic band live & vocalist Thomas Barnett is a great live performer, he really took his chance to share his worldviews that are Strike Anywhere with the crowd. Some of the set list favorites for me was Amplify, Infrared, To The World, Instict & Hollywood Cemetery. Overall I wasn’t blown away by this performance, at times there was sound problems but they overcame this and played an instrumental, but it was an extremely good punk/hardcore set that everyone there seemed to be impressed by and got into it. Strike Anywhere finished with Timebomb Generation and didn’t come back with an encore but this didn’t stop there legions of fans trying to get one.