For years it has been unheard of for a heavy Australian act to be able to put claim to a #1 album. It’s a testament to our growing heavy music scene, and The Amity Affliction’s continually impeccable output, that Chasing Ghosts knocked off the likes of The Presets and The XX to clinch the top spot on the ARIA charts in mid-September.
Clearly more and more people are taking notice of this Brisbane quintet and the love was as thick as it gets at The Palace Theatre.
Sydney’s Buried In Verona kicked things off with a short 20 minute set. While they didn’t connect overly well with the still-entering audience (80% of which probably didn’t know the band), they gave it their all and certainly had heads banging to staple live track ‘Four Years’.
British metallers Architects really had things moving with a well-balanced selection of perfectly executed technical craft from latest offering Daybreak and their mathcore classic Hollow Crown, throwing in a brief reminder of their 2011 post hardcore escapade with ‘Day In Day Out.’
An almost faultless performance, the band would have certainly won over some new fans, but the short set was disappointing considering the band have released two albums since their late 2010 visit. Classic track ‘Follow The Water’ remains the set highlight, cueing a mosh pit eruption in the crushing intro and highlighting vocalist Sam Carter’s clean vocal prowess with the chill-inducing chant in the song’s final passage.
Armed with highly praised new album Get What You Give, taking to the stage next was Los Angeles hardcore titans The Ghost Inside. Undying circle pits and flailing limbs made for appropriate scenery to crushing riffery as they delivered everything fans have come to expect from their energetic shows.
Vocalist Jonathon Vigil touched hearts when he dedicated killer new track ‘Thirty Three’ to his father, who passed away last week while the band were on the opposite side of the world playing shows. ‘Engine 45’ saw the band finish strongly with Architects’ Sam Carter returning to the stage to lend a hand with the melodic passages.
A short efficient change-over and the lights dimmed for the headliners. Entering with new single ‘Chasing Ghosts’ – epic sing-alongs, confetti and an impressive light show set the scene for what has to be the most powerful Amity show to date.
Next we are hit with ‘Anchors’ and frontman Joel Birch powers through the gritties while Ahren Stringer’s pitch perfect cleans resonate through the hearts of every fan in the room. Another Youngbloods highlight, ‘Fire or Knife’, makes way for ‘R.I.P Bon’ and the band are visibly stoked to see everyone singing along to the new tunes.
The Amity Affliction then take us back to Severed Ties with ‘Stairway To Hell’. The band’s musicianship has increased in a big way since their 2007 debut album and they absolutely smoke the song live, stepping up every aspect from the original recording while maintaining the authenticity, then slowing it down with new anthem ‘Geof Sux 666’ and go to a brief interval.
Returning to fire up ‘I Hate Hartley’ to a response comparable to when it dropped jaws for the first time on the Youngbloods tour in 2010. Birch sincerely thanks Melburnians for going crazy for Chasing Ghosts closer ‘Bondi St. Blues’, written as a thank you to a friend. A return to Youngbloods for a duo of highlights with ‘H.M.A.S Lookback’ and the epic title track, with the deafening roar of “Fuck The Reaper!” capitalising on everything the band is about.
Anyone who had picked up Chasing Ghosts would have been wetting themselves in anticipation of seeing the encore of ‘Open Letter’. Birch screams ‘One More Time!’ and drowned in confetti the fans muster up everything they have left in their blown-out voice boxes to scream out the catchy heartfelt chorus and see the incredible band off the stage.
The Amity Affliction are one of the most talked about bands in Australia today, and they deserve every bit of praise they receive. With every tour they raise the bar for themselves and being part of their crowd makes it feel truly awesome to be an Australian.
