It’s a cold and wet Sunday night in Melbourne’s southeast – but inside the sold-out Pier Bandroom, the vibe and the temperature is definitely the opposite.
More than 1200 homegrown heavy music lovers are here for Polaris’ final date of their 22-date regional tour, on the back of last year’s third album Fatalism.
The front pit is packed, and it’s a mission to squeeze past the bar or get around the room with punters lining up for drinks or gathered on the edges of the famous circular dancefloor at the back. I’m not expecting to cop another black eye from a stray kick to the face like I did at Polaris’ emotionally charged Margaret Court Arena show last year, but nonetheless, this crowd looks like they’re down to give them a solid end-of-tour party.
Two genre-mashing bands have been enlisted for support duties – Inertia and Ocean Grove.
Both delight the punters and get circle pits and plenty of moshing in their own right. Of note, Ocean Grove’s core duo of vocalist Dale Tanner and bassist Twiggy Hunter switch roles for an attitude-filled version of “Neo”. The band also receive plenty of hand clapping and singalongs during their closing trio of “Stratosphere Love”, “Sunny”, and “Junkies”.
After a few opening atmospherics, Polaris cut loose from the first bars of set opener “The Crossfire” and follow up with “All Of This Is Fleeting”, with frontman Jamie Hails flipping between thrashing his hair around and beaming with joy as the crowd moshes away. He thanks everyone for selling the place out, declares the gig as a “safe space,” and urges everyone to be themselves.
It also serves as friendly housekeeping as he then calls for a massive circle pit for “Hypermania”. The crowd happily does their part, and Void of Vision’s Jack Bergin also jumps on stage for a cameo to belt out the final chorus. The remainder of the set is largely filled with tracks from Fatalism, including the dedication of “Overflow” to their “fallen brother” and former guitarist Ryan Siew, who died just over a year ago.
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The band do, however, throw in a “deep cut” for loyal fans – with “Sonder” from 2017 debut The Mortal Coil, and of course, the headbangers delight that is their breakout single “The Remedy”.
A grieving process can take a while, and just over a year after their shattering loss of Siew, Polaris appear to be back on track.
Right before closer “Inhumane”, Hails is in full gratitude mode as he tells crowd they’re the loudest of the whole tour, gives thanks to everyone down to the bar staff for a “magical” finish to the tour, and declares Frankston their “second home.”
It feels like one of Australia’s best heavy bands are in a good space, back enjoying what they do again, and doing it well.
