Gig

Body Count - Gig Review & Photo Gallery 3rd June @ Big Top, Sydney NSW

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Heavy Metal Wordsmith

/10

Jun 5, 2017

7 min read

Body Count
Big Top, Sydney NSW
3rd June 2017
Supported by Void of Vision & A.B. Original

Normally when I walk into a venue and see an entire crowd with a median age of roughly forty five wearing Limp Bizkit shirts with an actual sense of pride, I realise I’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere and leave post haste. I even saw two people wearing legitimate The Burning Red shirts. Ludicrous. However, this time, I wasn’t incorrect, because I was there to see Body Count and their friends for the first time.

Void of Vision was up first, and wasn’t exactly what I expected. Instead of the nu-metal I thought I was getting, I was buffeted in the face with a young group of guys playing the absolute show of their lives (up ’til now anyway). They were energetic, they were enthusiastic and they were downright charismatic. As a live unit, they’re really fucking good and I can see them gaining a large amount of fans through this tour. Musically though, not for me. I almost respected them for sticking to their guns and just playing straight up Stray from the Path-esque, rap influenced hardcore, but then the cleans kicked in and… Well, not for me.

Another form of music that isn’t for me is rap, but, you know what? A.B. Original were still enjoyable as all hell. The beats that they were laying down (is that how you say it?) were unbelievably cool. I’m glad they were put on the bill because it really set up Body Count later, as the first band brought the rock, these guys brought the rap. Musically they’re a tight group that really know how to get the crowd involved, but my favourite aspect about their show for me was everything they said between the music. Briggs and Trials, are two highly intelligent and outspoken guys who deserve your attention, be it through their musical endeavours or anything else they put their golden hands on.

Then, amidst the police tape, sirens and flashing blue and red lights, Body Count emerged on stage, wasting no time in starting their show, but not with anything so mundane as a single from their new album, no. They started with a cover of fucking Slayer. Masterful move I must say. Any interest the crowd had lost in the short wait that the stage was being set up was instantly reignited and sparked into a wildfire of cheering, thrown horns and headbanging. Ice-T is no Tom Araya but his gravelly voice lent a very unique Body Count charm to the cover. It’s amazing to see how magnetic he still is as a frontman; any questions I had about age where quickly thrown out the window watching him perform.

That goes for the entire band as well. Song after song, drummer Ill Will (coolest fucking name ever) hammered his kit like a carpenter working three jobs, with his moment to shine coming to the fore during ‘There Goes the Neighbourhood.’ Despite it being one catchy motherfucking song, there was a crazy drum solo slotted in at the end that made me feel like I was watching the final scene of Whiplash. His breakneck speed never let up either, drumming a million miles a minute for the entire set, practically fuelling the runaway train that was Body Count the entire night.

I can’t stress how easygoing and comfortable the entire band seemed on the stage, whether it was playing their classics or their new singles, which they performed with just as much pride as their older material. ‘No Lives Matter’ and ‘The Ski Mask Way’ were songs that I thoroughly enjoyed, a feeling that I could see reflected in the crowd. But no song got a better reception than the seminal tracks ‘Cop Killer’ and ‘Born Dead’, sending the crowd into an absolute frenzy, the pit opening up like an exploding car on an abandoned street.

Overall, their brand of rap inspired, old school heavy metal was all that was needed to get the blood pumping and the crowd moving that night, just as it did twenty years ago when they last visited. Body Count was an interesting show to attend, I’m even glad that I did, otherwise how I would I know to attribute the “virtual encore” to Ice-T? Sorry, Ice-motherfucking-T-bitch.

— Dylonov Tomasivich

Setlist —