Live review 26th June 2015 @ The Corner Hotel
Since the release of their debut full-length album Shed in 2011, Kingston’s Title Fight have made consistent progression over their career. The changes in sound between Shed and 2012s Floral Green remain subtle yet noticeably different, and further still, the mixture of punk, emo and melodic hardcore they blend remain a very fine alchemy.
Just this year, the band broke their silence with the release of their third record Hyperview, which championed much more of a post-punk and shoegaze influenced sound, a sound that raised more than a few eyebrows among fans and critics alike.
When the risk involved in changing up your sound carries with it the mentality of “Damned if you do, damned if you don’t”, evolution between full-length albums is nothing but a glorified tightrope walk, and while Hyperview is the furthest thing from a bad album, it’s understandable that it might provoke some critical backlash.
While some might echo that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” the change in sound wasn’t entirely unnecessary, but admittedly was a bit of a shock, especially if it caused the Kingston four-piece to sound like they’d taken a bunch of tranquilizers. We just had to wait and see if it had any lingering effect on their live show.
Taking refuge from the cold, punters gathered inside Richmond’s Corner Hotel filling out the floor nice and early, while the pungent scent of Carlton Draught and incense wafted through venue-wide.
Byron Bay’s Postblue warmed the crowd for the night to come. The clearly Hyperview influenced three-piece played a downbeat style of shoegaze, laden with distortion and reverb, crafting fuzzy walls of noise reminiscent of the glory days of Dinosaur Jr. as well as The Pixies.
The group displayed immaculate chemistry amongst one another proving to be a very cohesive watch, nary missing a beat, especially during the impending climax of set highlight ‘Drown Me’.
Paper Arms followed, hailing from Adelaide and bringing with them an unkempt liveliness as they played a traditional brand of punk rock, shaming local politics on their hit ‘You Don’t Speak For Me’. “This one goes out to Tony Abbott, our fearless leader who… ah, let’s just go with ‘cunt’.”
Contrasting vocals between members proved to be quite effective with frontman Josh Mann reminiscing about the time spent with the boys from Kingston during the tour. “Title Fight are better than us at music, but not at pool” he said, to an uproar of laughter.
The crowd moved in closer as the curtains drew. The Kingston quartet opened with the hypnotic Hyperview opener ‘Murder Your Memory’, Jamie Rhoden lulling the crowd into a false sense of security with his soft vocals before tearing into the title track of Shed. Bassist Ned Russin bounded about the stage, screaming at the audience to “Shed their skin”.
The group played an extremely balanced setlist, not showing any sort of bias towards their new album, despite it being the eponymous tour for why they were even there in the first place. They juggled back and forth between all of their studio efforts, letting the slower tracks act as a moment’s reprieve for both themselves and the audience, who expelled most of their energy moshing and crowd surfing. The energy in the room was almost palpable, especially during crowd favourites of ‘Numb But I Still Feel It’ and the infamous ‘27’.
“My father said, don’t be so scared. Driving home all alone, you’re in a hospital bed. I close my eyes. Ignore the sun. Try to wake up from the dream; it’s not working this time. I said your name 27 times, would that bring you back to life?”
[include_post id=”451965″] Credit is surely to be due to Russin for his powerful vocals, which were perhaps only overshadowed by the crowd themselves, screaming his words right back at him, two walls of sound clashing in a night-long tug of war. Punters leapt off the stage as quickly as they scaled it, displaying a sense of vacuous ‘in the moment’ energy that few gigs seem to harness.
Russin expressed immense gratitude on behalf of the band in as little as a few words: “Thank you so much for coming out and spending the night with us. We’re so far from home and… just, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.” The crowd cheered at Russin’s sincerity, as well as his endearing inarticulacy.
The four-piece ended their night on the immaculate one-two punch of the slow-burning ‘Head In The Ceiling Fan’ followed by the brilliantly cathartic ‘Secret Society’, bookending their setlist perfectly. “I’ll be you and you’ll be me” was chanted venue-wide before erupting into a sea of applause as the band took their leave for the night, once again expressing their appreciation to the crowd.
Check out the full gallery from the show here.
