Four years ago it would have seemed inconceivable that this Texan four-piece would struggle to sell out the Metro Theatre with its measly 1200 person capacity. Walking into a practically empty room for Kiai Academy, the one and only support for the night, it seemed like the rumours of terrible ticket sales were actually true.

With a disinterested crowd seemingly only there to secure good positions for the headliners, the support tried their darndest to bang it out with a kind of ferocity aimed to spark interest and get at least a few bodies moving. It was a tough break for the Western Sydney act, making their way through around a half hour of punchy punk rock with little more acknowledgement from the crowd other than the courtesy applause after each song.

As if to dramatise Sparta’s appearance the stage curtains were drawn closed, and one can only imagine the kind of debauchery that was going on up there between sets. I would have assumed they were just setting up the stage for the band, but surely something as uninteresting as that wouldn’t be covered up!

Quarter to nine hits, the curtains opened and a bearded Jim Ward walks on to stage with two familiar faces, and a recent addition. With a quick look around the room, the place had filled up quite nicely, explaining the rapturous applause upon the band’s appearance.

After opening with two new tracks from Threes, it quickly became clear a lot of people weren’t too impressed or interested with their new material. For the showpiece band of the night, it was mighty odd to see little more movement than the slight nod of heads – and this continued for the majority of the set.

Soon they busted out with Light Burns Clear from their debut full-length, Wiretap Scars, but even that failed to get the crowd moving. Stepping it up a little, Guns of Memorial Park and Breaking The Broken were given a working, to which the collective voice of the crowd was beginning to be heard – if only slightly – above the PA.

However, it doesn’t last for long and they revert to more material from the newy. By about the 45 minute mark they got into Taking Back Control, and at this point it seems as if this, disappointingly, will be the highlight of the night. Thankfully it was not to be, as they then rip through Air, a more rocking song much needed right up to this point. The room seemed to agree, with crowd vocals easily being heard, and the very first sign of a moshpit all night!

Alright, so we were – œwarmed up’ by the band for around 50 minutes before they decided to kick out the jams. Next up was surely going to be another ripper! Nuh-uh, Jimmy and co. decide that was a fairly decent serving, and promptly walk off stage. With a strained view of the setlist from the barricade we knew this was it, not even a setlisted encore!

But wait, what was that? The band walked back on, but was this going to be a good thing or a bad thing? We put up with a pretty bland set, did we need to be bothered by more of this, or would it be a good thing that we were getting more Sparta? Any doubts were cast right aside when the snare/tom combination of the opening bars to Cut Your Ribbon were pounded out. “Wake up!” the crowd yelled along in unison, and this time the moshing was even more enthusiastic. It was all shortlived, though, with two more slower numbers finished off by a sing-along with a lone Jim.

It was good in parts, but they just aren’t the same band they were only 2 or 3 years ago. The downfall of this show was that it was very heavy on material off the latest album when it was clear most people weren’t too interested in it. Even with the older material, they could have chosen some much more energetic songs.

On the whole, this wasn’t technically a bad show, but it did seriously pale in comparison to the Wiretap Scars and Porcelain tours.