“Hardcore is a space where anything you do is meaningful and should be treasured. That is such an important thing, such a special thing,” Jem Siow of SPEED once told Rolling Stone AU/NZ.
“Yo, it’s a f*kin’ party in here, bruh,” Jem can be heard yelling in a YouTube video the Sydney hardcore band released today of their live performance at the city’s Enmore Theatre. “I’m f*ckin’ Asian!” he further exclaimed with pride.
SPEED capture electrifying scenes of fans moshing in the middle throughout the set, with bursts of martial arts-type dancing onstage, as well as hordes of hardcore enthusiasts swarming both high and low.
The 34-minute video comes a few months after the band finished their tour in August. On the night of the video, local act Primitive Blast, the UK’s High Vis, American’s Pain of Truth and Singapore’s Fuse also played at the Enmore.
About one-third of the way into the video and set, Jem addresses the crowd once more: “We chose this venue because we wanted to f*cking show what real-deal hardcore made by friends, made by family, made by this f*cking community can do, without the backing of any f*cking outside or industry motherf*ckers.
“All we ever wanted to do as a band when we started, was to nurture the culture of Sydney hardcore that we’ve come to learn for the last seventeen years. The last few years of our lives have been f*cking transformative because of the way everybody in this room has banded together… being able to export this f*cking culture to the rest of the world as well.”
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“We are nothing but the product of our friends and our family,” Jem added. He shared a similar sentiment at a previous Melbourne show.
SPEED capped their breakout year last week with a big win at the 2024 ARIA Awards.
The happy hardcore crew were honoured with the Best Hard Rock / Heavy Metal Release award for Only One Mode, seeing off strong competition from C.O.F.F.I.N (Australia Stops), Dune Rats (If It Sucks, Turn It Up), Polaris (Fatalism), and Teenage Joans (The Rot That Grows Inside My Chest).
SPEED’s debut album dropped in July, bringing their signature style to a wider audience than ever before.
