Reviewed onSaturday July 9
Set for a night of post-hardcore epicness, Stepson and The Brave join Dream On Dreamer on The White Rose Tour, the rustic interior of The Bald Faced Stag the ideal place for some heavy ambience to burn your eardrums.
Like a car with a bad engine, first support Stepson chug in to action with spluttering soundchecks – all pretty anticlimactic for such a setting. They hint at epic potential with ‘Compassion & Growth’ – think early 36 Crazyfists – and though a messy mix inhibits them, they try to work through it. When ‘Twelve’ comes round, lead singer Brock Conroy is giving everything he’s got, pushing through obvious exhaustion and owning the stage.
Don’t be fooled by the youth of The Brave – these Brisbane babies pack a punch. Setting the bar for their whole set, they explode onto the stage, beefy and tight, rhythm guitarist Kurt Thomson snaking around and lead singer Nathan Toussaint hurling himself about like a plastic bag in the breeze. They play with the energy and experience of a band far more advanced in years, and it’s that energy that draws the crowd in towards them on Toussaint’s request.
There’s a measure of anticipation from the crowd as Dream On Dreamer arrive, but in front of a half-full room the Melbourne outfit are initially lacking in energy and kill the buzz. They find their feet, though, and with more people trickling in through the doors, ‘Infinity’ sees the inner animal of drummer Aaron Fiocca brutally setting the pace.
Lead vocalist Marcel Gadacz is adamant he wants the crowd clapping along – for every single song – and through ‘Souls On Fire’, ‘Vertigo’ and ‘Darkness Brought Me Here’, his insistence takes away from his performance, of which there is little unless there’s clapping. Otherwise, he’s content to let the crowd sing for him. It’s pretty disheartening and often boring, but it seems that Gadacz needs to draw on the audience’s energy for something like ‘Society To Anxiety’ – at last, his vocals hit the crowd like a tsunami, relentless and forceful.
With such powerful numbers in their set, there’s an obvious appeal for the antics that Dream On Dreamer bring, yet while no band can ever do without the encouragement and love of their fans, it’s disappointing that these guys have to rely so heavily on crowd involvement to be functional.
