Metro Theatre, Sydney
Saturday August 17, 2013 :
Its always a pleasure coming to the Metro in Sydney, such an excellent vibe and amazing layout for the venue. It seems I’m not the only one who feels this way. The venue is filled early with punters from all walks of musical existence, there’s the bearded metal heads, the clean faced rockers and the eager Flyleaf fans seem to have already snapped up half the merch before the first band has started.
Speaking of the first band, Breakaway are a fresh faced five piece melodic, radio friendly rock band who look like they’re about as excited as people waiting for a bus. Don’t get me wrong, they’re tight, professional and vocalist Sam Biland has outstanding voice control. They did loosen up towards the end of their somewhat forced set and played a crowd favourite ‘At The World’s End’ which the vocalist plugged as an MTV heatseaker video. The crowd seemed to be very receptive to the band, but I just couldn’t get a finger on the pulse of what they were trying to do. Maybe it’s just down to their nerves but to me it seemed like they were phoning it in.
Another Sydney local, Carmeria, a female fronted pop infused metal band, incorporating flashy glam licks coupled with stomping bass section. Swedish influenced euro metal, ala Amorphis forced through Evanescence with snappy breakdowns. These guys and gals obviously worship at the steeple of Nightwish with the very receptive crowd lapping it up, even the Impromptu Dream Theatre inspired instrumentals. Their set was varied and breathtaking, absolutely great band and they even covered ‘Toxic’ by Britney Spears which was devastatingly fun and even had the most grizzled crowd members singing along.
Up next is a band that I had hear so many wonderful things about, Blue Mountains based band, Red Bee – odd by name, odd by nature. The easiest way to describe Red Bee is that they’re a metal band fronted by Tim Minchin, thrashing heaving riffs, smashing drums, off kilter grooves, they certainly stick out like a sore thumb on this lineup with their rough edges. The track ‘Angelo’s School of Arms’ is techy and gets the crowd going with Meshuggah-esque polyrhythms. This band has certainly done the rounds on the Aussy tour circuit and they show this by playing like a headliner. They end their unbelievably energetic set with a track called ‘Through to You’ which is a stomping call to arms, reminiscent of Sunk Loto.
And now, the moment we’d all been waiting for, the lights dim, the crowd’s voices could be heard from halfway across the city, then Flyleaf burst onto the stage like a pack of wild animals that have been fed a steady diet nothing but Redbull, heavy riffs and Sunday hymns.
A mish mash of soaring melodies over dirty grungy riffs, bass player Patt Seals is a man possessed spending more time in the air than he does on the stage. The whole band is a concoction of energetic, tight, passionate tunes of which the crowd laps up every note.
New song, ‘Well of Lies’ is slow, cathartic, dirge like track that transcends into massive melodic chorus. New vocalist Kristen May is an absolutely excellent fit for the band, smashing through a fan favourite “best of” setlist of 18 songs that would leave any Flyleaf fan salivating. Ending the night with a stomping rendition of ‘So sick’ and the well placed encore track of ‘So I Thought’, Flyleaf came, saw and they rocked out with their crosses out. Well played.
Set List:
Call You Out
New Horizons
Again
Cassie
Perfect
Something Better
Great Love
Fully Alive
Fire Fire
Swept Away
Thread
Well of Lies
I’m Sorry
Sorrow
Broken Wings
All Around Me
So Sick
So I Thought
Reviewer: Luke Cowan
Photographer: Ashlee Kellehear
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Just like to say,
RED BEE DESTROYED IT!
And it’s called “Through to you”
😀
And “Angelo’s school of arms”
:p
Thanks for that Wade. Have made the updates