Greg Puciato - Gig Review & Photo Gallery 17th January @ The Brightside, Bris QLD

Greg Puciato
The Brightside, Meanjin/Brisbane QLD
January 17, 2023
Support: King Yosef, Trace Amount & She Cries Wolf

A wearer of many hats, Greg Puciato has seemingly not gotten a moment’s rest since the amicable 2017 disbanding of The Dillinger Escape Plan, for whom he fronted for over a decade and a half. With multiple solo releases, touring and recording with Jerry Cantrell, co-founding the label Federal Prisoner and his work with two excellent supergroups in Killer Be Killed & Better Lovers; the last six or so years have been nonstop from the Baltimore-born singer.

With Australia always being a strong market for the various Puciato projects, it’s fantastic to see Greg Puciato hit our shores once again, bringing along a couple of international supports with him. It’s another steamy night here inside of Brisbane’s The Brightside, and the diversity of the crowd is impressive; goths, metalheads, punks, ‘normies’ – the wide array of people here speaks volumes to Puciato’s broad musical scope.

Sadly, due to issues at the door, Wall of Sound misses local supports She Cries Wolf’s opening slot. From what we heard, though, the Gold Coast crew’s metalcore/hardcore sound definitely takes nods from a couple of Puciato’s new bandmates in Better Lovers (which includes current/former members of Every Time I Die & END) and they are certainly the heaviest performers of the evening.

Busting into the Brightside just in the nick of time, one-man act Trace Amount immediately rattles the venue’s foundations with his fierce, coldly-mechanical industrial beats. Screaming out harsh, reverb-soaked vocals as he mans the sampler, the Brooklyn-based soloist also beats out thunderous percussion on both electronic pads and acoustic floor tom. Though playing to a fairly sparse room, the multi-instrumental cares little as he prowls the stage, with his backing almost cinematic in it’s epic, ‘the apocalypse is coming’ kinda way. At times he struggles to keep everything afloat – occasionally a little out of time with the percussion hits – with perhaps the inclusion of an auxiliary member is only real obvious improvement to the Trace Amount live set. Otherwise, it’s a great half-an-hour showing, with those who have rocked up early showing plenty of warm support for the hotly-rising industrialist.

Another North American group playing Australian dates for the first time thanks to this tour is Portland’s King Yosef. A fellow solo artist like Trace Amount, King Yosef’s live set-up sees the inclusion of both a drummer and sampler/guitarist, whilst King Yosef himself commands the stage with mic in hand. With a metric ton of energy – and a casual between-song demeanour – King Yosef immediately gets a strong reaction from the filling crowd. Their sound is massive; the combination of the thudding low-end-heavy samples, the pounding drums and tortured vocals is completely engrossing – almost reaching sensory overload territory at times. A lot of the tracks are short bursts of violence, with ‘Pity Case’ seeing the pit open up with mic-grabs aplenty, while a couple of new (and unreleased) cuts being lapped up by the sweaty masses here. With blastbeats, breakdowns and pitch-shifted chugging between the glitching beats and industrial soundscapes, King Yosef is exactly what metal-influenced industrial music should sound like in 2024.

After what feels like an eternity (or at least 45 minutes) Greg Puciato’s band take to the cramped stage to squall of feedback, before the man of the hour strolls out mid-riff to a heroes welcome. With drink in hand (which quickly gets launched into the crowd), Puciato leads his colleagues through the driving ‘Reality Spiral‘ from his latest album Mirrorcell, before leading straight into older tune ‘Do You Need Me To Remind You?‘. Puciato is in a jovial mood, with The Brightside’s barrier-free setting meaning the first couple of rows of punters getting endless sweaty interactions with the vocalist all night. His obvious confidence on stage is clear, totally at home with a big grin plastered across his face across the 80 minute set. Also, kudos to the sound tech – though borderline deafening, The Brightside’s usual horrible sound is vetoed for an actual, well balanced mix.

All three of Puciato’s solo efforts get air time, with ‘No More Lives To Go‘ and ‘Deep Set‘ in particular sounding excellent – no small part to the cracking band assembled, especially with Daughter’s member Nick Sadler on guitar. The highpoint of the evening certainly belongs to the set centrepiece ‘Lowered‘. Pulled from their discreet-ish hiding place behind the lighting desk, Puciato grabs Code Orange’s Reba Meyers on stage to massive applause to duet with him. With Puciato gladly giving her the centerstage, Meyers’ does an excellent job belting out the fantastic, shoe-gaze/alt-rock influenced track, despite genuinely appearing as if she didn’t expect this to happen.

It’s not all smooth sailing for the rest of the gig – the bass amp seemingly doesn’t want to co-operate for most of the set – and Puciato’s voice starts to wear down a touch, though he does excellently on the live debut of ‘I, Eclipse‘. A quick INXS and Dillinger Escape Plan tease at the tail-end of the show gets quickly overwhelmed with the colossal, building-cacophony of ‘All Waves To Nothing’.

Though it’s not a sell-out, and certainly not on the same levels of intensity as a Dillinger show, the fully-immersed and fully-invested fans here make up for any empty patches – and Puciato’s repeated appreciation to those in attendance is genuine. Ending with raucous cover Alice In Chains ‘Them Bones’ (dedicated to AIC’s Jerry Cantrell), the grunge/hard rock classic is a perfect two and half minute blast of chest-beating, sing-along power and a excellent way to sign off.

There is no doubt that Greg Puciato is a proper musical artist. His sound is diverse, and his passion and energy for the music and art scene is seemingly bottomless. Tonight is certainly a triumphant kick-off date for this national tour – the two supports flown in from the USA were both engrossing and impressive, while the main man himself further stakes his claim as one of the truly great frontmen – and now solo acts – in the heavy/alternative music world.

Gig Review by Andrew Kapper @andrew_kapper

Photos by Sean Fabre-Simmonds. Insta: @sean_f.s
Please credit Wall of Sound and Sean Fabre-Simmonds if you repost photos

Setlist

Reality Spiral
Do You Need Me to Remind You?
Absence as a Presence
Fire for Water
Don’t Wanna Deal
No More Lives To Go
Deep Set
Never Wanted That
Lowered (with Reba Meyers of Code Orange)
A Pair of Questions
I, Eclipse
All Waves to Nothing

Encore

Creator of God
Evacuation
September City
Them Bones (Alice In Chains cover)

She Cries Wolf

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‍King Yosef

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‍Greg Puciato

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