Northlane – Gig Review 26th May @ The Mill Precinct, Toowoomba QLD

NORTHLANE
The Mill Precinct, Toowoomba QLD
May 26^th, 2017
Supports – My Friend The Betrayer & The Brave

Sweat, ponchos, a KFC bucket hat, beer and moshing. If you season Northlane and their two supporting artists for the night with these ingredients, you will concoct the correct recipe for a seriously enjoyable evening…

After the venue was upgraded to The Mill Precinct from The Spotted Cow a mere few hours before the concert due to demand, My Friend The Betrayer began their final performance together. The boys went out with a bang by melting faces off all who stood in the venue, and anyone else within earshot outside too. With his shirt off and lungs assaulting his held microphone, Ravi Sherwell (vocals) proved he is one of those singers that morphs into a behemoth on stage, surpassing what vocals can achieve in the studio. The mosh pit energy reflected how much the local scene will miss this band.

A saluted fist-pump goes out to the Toowoomba home-grown metalcore powerhouse for all the music they brought us and for getting the crowd buzzing for the following acts.

The Brave progressed the mood and concert by introducing a little more melody. Influences from Architects, Northlane and Bring Me The Horizon (post deathcore/pre anthem rock stage) shine through but their sound is, overall, undoubtedly original. Spinning limbs, windmilling fists and fans half hanging over the barrier clearly showed how effective these guys are at getting the audience to fall in love with them. Seeing these guys rain their music over a huge venue would be an epic site with the sing along choruses and slamming breakdowns being written. Tight performance, guitars riffing and complimenting one another, Nathan Toussaint (vocals) and Daniel Neucom (bass/vocals) screaming and singing in perfect balance and a drummer (Brent Thomson) double kicking his way to 1^st class.

I want to see these guys play again, and again.

Northlane are one of the more successful metal bands in Australia at the moment and obviously for justified reasons. Their recent 4^th studio album release, Mesmer, fuelled the first three songs of their set-list. Guitarist, Jonathon Deiley, and drummer, Nic Pettersen, stylishly took to the stage through the smoke dressed in full blacks and mysterious face masks. The opening samples to ‘Paragon’ bring the audience to a stand-still before fellow members Josh Smith (guitar) and Alex Milovic (bass) appear to bleed the astronomical riff composed in Mesmer’s closing song. Marcus Bridge (vocals) joins and completes the band. ‘Colourwave’ and album-single ‘Citizen’ pour from the speakers after and ensure the entire moshing crowd receives a healthy neck workout.

Seeing the band in a large Toowoomba shed as opposed to a typical venue shows how much these guys care about playing to a crowd no matter what. Their passion reflects in the amount of energy that was pumped out.

The band began to tickle ears of the audience with songs from previous albums. Songs from Node, Singularity, and Discoveries made all members of the crowd content with the performance. Combining clean, high choruses like in ‘Leech’ and the pure power of groovy/heavy songs like ‘Dispossession’ kept the crowd interested really effectively. Seeing Marcus flaunt his take on classics such as ‘Dream Awake’ was a special moment to experience too; the fans clearly love it.

It wouldn’t be a Northlane without their earth-breaking hit, ‘Quantum Flux’, beating into the hearts of new and old fans. Leaving it the end of the set, we all a whole concert of anticipation boiling us up to tear the mosh pit apart.

It’s safe to say Toowoomba has a metal scene, and a fucking good one. This was the first show I have seen outside of a state capitol city, and I can hands down say I enjoyed it more than the last time I saw Northlane at Brisbane’s, The Triffid. The crowd was so much more interactive with the performers’ energy and the amount of people walking in just to see who was playing was astonishing. My hat goes off to the regional cities and towns around Australia pouring gasoline all over the metal scene here.

Setlist

• Paragon
• Colourwave
• Citizen
• Leech
• Rot
• Savage
• Dream Awake
• Dispossession
• Zero-One
• Intuition
• Quantum Flux

Encore

• Obelisk

Review by Kurt Boldy (@Kurt_Boldy)
Revisit our chat with Northlane frontman Marcus Bridgehere
Our review of the boys' explosive new album Mesmer is here