Make Them Suffer – Gig Review & Photo Gallery 24th September @ Rosemount Hotel, Perth WA
Make Them Suffer
Rosemount Hotel, Perth WA
September 24th, 2017
Support: Wage War, Daybreak and Sparrow
Well, it’s the same old story, ain’t it? Make Them Suffer are back in their hometown, Perth – you know what to do! Boy, do they ever. The deathcore giants always prepare for the best, as their loyal fans pack venues wall-to-wall to get a glimpse at the band’s current status. The Rosemount Hotel has been recently renovated, maximising mosh-space and optimising stage views from across the venue – it was certainly going to be an interesting evening assessing the changes. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like the Queen wanted to hear metal on her birthday, but we’ll discuss that later.
As indicated by the supports list above, Make Them Suffer do what they usually do and go “well we are humble as hell, so people won’t want to just see us, so let’s pack the gig with menacing brutality.” – oh and sell out the gig like a piece of cake. First cab off the ranks were locals Sparrow (AKA I, Said the Sparrow) who delivered a really interesting set. With an industrial/goth presence, the West Australians delivered a mature sounding set with crisp production. Together with Marilyn Manson-esque dragged out vocals and the dark face-paint and endearing microphone affection, Sparrow pumped out an impressive bunch of aggressive rock to agreeable fans.
So far so good, right? Well, next up were a second set of Perth locals, namely Daybreak – a band who have already established themselves rather quaintly by supporting some big names recently. The metalers fused vocal elements of In Hearts Wake and even some old-school Bring Me the Horizon with their developing metalcore instrumentation. The Rosemount was packed to the bloody brim; sardines smashing back VBs being the public holiday that it was. Daybreak’s energy was really positive and enabled an electric mosh pit. Punters were crowd-surfing in consistent proportions and the night’s momentum was building and building. Unfortunately, the first of the evening’s hiccoughs arrived as the power cut out throughout the entire venue [about 80% into the set]. The crowd was restless, people were yelling and speculating – “was the set cut short ‘cause they’re over time?” no it wasn’t. “Is the power out in the courtyard as well?” Yes, the metal sounds were apparently too much for the circuits to manage – what do you reckon about that Queen Lizzy? After persevering and lingering on stage for a few minutes, the band finally gave up and thanked fans for having a sick time before packing up.
After a decent amount of time, the house-lights returned and the next band were frantically setting up as the itinerary was falling well-behind. Wage War are a band reigning all the way from Florida. The American musicians took their sound-check incredibly seriously and perfected each and every instrument from the exact correct positions on stage. When the house-lights finally dimmed, the perked up crowd yelled in unison. Finally, Perthies got a glimpse at this metalcore quintet who hadn’t been to Australian shores before. Sporting bangers from their first and second albums, Wage War brought absolute mania to the stage. Opening with nu-metal flavoured track ‘Stitch’, the crowd detonated and reinstated the energy from earlier. As incredible as the band’s sound was, reverberating through the Rosemount, the aesthetic wasn’t as crisp as they had hoped. The bad luck continued here, as they had not received half of their gear from the flight to Perth. It was abundantly clear that the band were devastated, but equally as stoked to be playing to the sold out crowd. Borrowing the local bands’ gear, the Fearless Records band cracked on and had heaps of fun playing new hits off ‘Deadweight’. Punters were hanging off horizontal beams and were even revoked from crowd surfing after a stage-light smashed on the floor in front of the barricade (how metal is that B.T.Dubs?)
Cold and rainy night in WA? Sure! Hot and sweaty inside? Definitely. I think I speak for everyone at that gig when I say – bring on a Wage War headliner with the whole kit and caboodle. Anyway, everyone was ready for the headliners to tear us a new one – and that they did. Following their predecessors, they spent a significant amount of time fine-tuning the sound-check, which just starved the audience.
Make Them Suffer warmed up their local fans with the all-so-familiar opening keys and bass to ‘Widower’ which brought chills. Vocalist Sean Harmanis (who we interviewed here) walked on stage in his signature cap and belched out the opening verse whilst the rest of the band warmed up their gear. There was no messing about as the deathcore demolition was in full force; Make Them Suffer were tearing through crowd-favourites from their past three LPs. Once again though, the Monarch was not ready to celebrate the way we wanted to. Guitars were cutting out intermittently and then almost completely for an entire song. Harmanis acknowledged the nuisance as he called out the technical issues and informed the crowd that they were short of gear from the flight as well as Wage War. It was a real shame as it clearly through the band off their game initially. New recruit on keys was the gorgeous Booka Nile who had a front-seat vocal role on the new record. Despite her flawless keyboarding, it was hard to hear her clean-vocals during most of the set. As Nile’s microphone’s volume increased, she delivered beautiful choruses for the band’s back catalogue. Fortunately, the musicians adapted to their less-than-resources and the sound became more refined as the set progressed. Some highlights of the show definitely included renditions of ‘Let Me In’ from ‘Old Souls’ and ‘Ether’, ‘Vortex’ and ‘Fireworks’ from the latest album ‘Worlds Apart’. As the evening approached midnight, Harmanis said goodnight to the loving crowd and thanked everyone ever so genuinely for coming out. After a brief encore, Make Them Suffer returned one last time to play a blistering rendition of ‘Blood Moon’.
Incredible value for money and a proper good public holiday eve in Perth, WA. Thumbs up from Wall of Sound.
Gig Review by Ricky Aarons @rickysaul90
Photo Gallery courtesy of the awesomely talented Jerika Faithfull.
Please credit Wall of Sound and Photographer if you use photos.
Instagram: @FaithfullPhotography
Daybreak
Wage War
Make Them Suffer
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