Reviewed onSaturday June 18
Having just completed an anniversary tour of their debut album Themata, and having toured three years ago in support of 2013’s Asymmetry, it’s easy to see why Karnivool ended up almost filling this set completely with songs from their only other record, Sound Awake – that is, save for two songs apiece from Themata and Asymmetry. And, of course, three new tracks.
Those new songs were the whole point of this gig, because as guitarist Mark Hosking recently explained, this Pre-Animation national tour (which also visited South Africa) was a chance for Karnivool to test out their fresh material.
The Sydney stop at Manning Bar felt like a show from a big-name comedian returning to his local comedy cellar to try out new jokes. Far from the mid-size venues a band like Karnivool would usually inhabit, the set-up looked cramped – barely a foot separated the drum kit from the edge of the stage – and the venue did too, as the big fish’s return to a little pond resulted in an overflowing sell-out.
In the middle of their opening three songs, sandwiched between two Sound Awake favourites, was the first of the new offerings, ‘All It Takes’. Later came ‘Animation’ and ‘Reanimation’. As hard as it is to nail down any song on first listening – let alone a prog rock song – the new Karnivool seems to be following the clean, streamlined progressive style of Asymmetry’s ‘Eidolon’.
Around these talking points, Karnivool pulled off a rather impressive performance that filled the hearts of the swollen crowd. The musicianship of the band members and their collective cohesiveness was excellent.
There was one standout star in that department, and that was singer Ian Kenny. He swayed like a spaceman, maintained more interest in the movement of his eyeballs than most people and garbled a few sentences when talking to the crowd, but his vocal performance hit all the highs, lows and in-betweens of his studio performance. For a singer to sound like they do on a record is rarer than it should be, so hats off to Kenny.
Karnivool’s dedication to their act was reflected in the crowd. With such a bulging audience for a tour about nothing, sandwiched between a nationwide tour not 12 months old and an upcoming support slot for Deftones later this year, this show echoed the strength of grassroots support in Australia for our homegrown heroes.
