“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 yells in a Youtube video the Sydney hardcore band released today of their live performance at the Enmore Theatre. “I’m f*ckin’ Asian!” he further claimed with pride.
Jack Rudder, Chris Zagas, Guy Vears and Hugh Rochester capture electrifying scenes of gig-goers moshing in the middle throughout the set, with bursts of martial arts-type dancing onstage, and hordes of hardcore enthusiasts swarming both high and low.
The 34-minute video comes a few months after Jem, Aaron, Joshua, Denis, and Kane of SPEED finished their ONLY ONE MODE 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.”
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“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 rst of the world as well.”
“We are nothing but the product of our friends and our family,” Jem speaks from the heart. He shared a similar sentiment at a previous Melbourne show.
He then pays tribute to his “brothers” Tahmid Nurullah and Alex Arthur. Nurullah was an avid photographer who captured scenes of subculture. A large banner honouring Narullah can be seen in SPEED’s video, hoisted over the lip of the first floor.
The Youtube description also includes a tribute, “IN LOVING MEMORY OF OUR BROTHERS TAHMID NURULLAH & ALEX ARTHUR”.
SPEED’s second track on the 12-song setlist is “DON’T NEED”. The song about maintaning authenticity was featured in a Best Australian Music of the Week feature by Rolling Stone.
The magnetic and moving thing about SPEED, is their dedication to keeping Sydney hardcore music alive.
“A lot of the bridges into hardcore at that time don’t really exist anymore,” Josh once told Rolling Stone AU/NZ in a feature.
Now, as evident in the video, hundreds if not thousands of people have been snapped rocking out to their music.
