Gig

Millencolin - Gig Review & Photo Gallery 2nd March @ Metropolis, Fremantle WA

Walladmin

Heavy Metal Wordsmith

Mar 3, 2019

7 min read

Millencolin
Metropolis, Fremantle WA
March 2nd, 2019
Supports: Goldfinger and Dan Cribb and The Isolated

Perth was certainly alive with the sound of music on the 2^nd of March, with the third annual (and supposedly the last) City Limits Fest held east of Perth CBD, Twelve Foot Ninja and Voyager playing north of Perth CBD and skate punk legends Millencolin playing with ska kings Goldfinger in Fremantle. Despite the plethora of live music available, a certain faction of Perth (including this reviewer) were pumped to see the Swedish punks in flesh, since their last Australian tour three years ago.

Opening the night with a 30-minute set were locals Dan Cribb and The Isolated, known as more of a singer-songwriter, folkish rock music, the trio punked things up and played a solid set that was met with an appreciative cheer from the small crowd who gathered in front of the stage. Playing a handful of tunes including a sped-up cover of ‘Dr Zaius’ from The Simpsons, the crowd bopped along, applauding the band. Dan Cribb and The Isolated, a local band who rarely plays gigs, seemed to enjoy being there and they tailored the set perfectly for the crowd, who enjoyed seeing them.

Very special guests Goldfinger arrived on stage with frontman John Feldmann greeting the crowd with “Greetings. How you doing?” before launching into ‘Spokesman’. Although a handful of fans were going crazy, jumping and singing, too many of the crowd were standing and drinking their beverages, leading Feldmann to state “My name is John, and my band is Goldfinger. I’ve been in a band for 27 years” before shaming the audience for their lack of participation telling us how far he had come to play, asking the audience “Can we now enjoy a punk rock show?” Well it seemed to work, as a small crowd started moshing like crazy to ‘A Million Miles’, which led to Feldmann standing on the speakers, creating more noise from the crowd. ‘Get Up’ and ‘In My Bedroom’ followed, with more skanking and jumping from the crowd. But the most impressive was the energy of the band, decked out in black suits and jumping high into the air like men half their age, Goldfinger played as if it was the last time they would play together. Feldmann introduced the rest of the band, Reed, Nick and Mike before asking the crowd for a circle pit, which the crowd delivered as they played ‘Hold The Knife’.

Introducing that the next song was by The Specials, Goldfinger killed ‘Nite Klub’, before Feldmann jumped into the crowd during ‘Wake Up’, which everyone was singing along to. For ‘Mabel’, several members of the crowd were pulled onto the stage, with the venue going off. ’Superman’ followed, with a saxophonist and trombonist coming onto the stage, as they had for a few other tracks, really adding to the atmosphere of the set. As soon as the band finished, the crowd immediately started chanting “one more song” to which the band came back on stage announcing they were just going to play covers, with The Cure’s ‘Just Like Heaven’, ‘Knowledge’ by Operation Ivy and finally ’99 Red Balloons’ in which crowd and singer decided to crowd surf. The band left the stage for the final time with the audience giving the devil horns, as requested, as they left.

Feeling as if the headliner had already played, Millencolin were expected to pull off something remarkable to follow Goldfinger. The crowd swelled, with the mosh pit at full capacity as Nikola Sarcevic, Mathias Färm, Erik Ohlsson and Fredrik Larzon arrived on stage firing into ‘SOS’, before thanking the crowd who literally created a wall of sound in response. ‘Penguins and Polarbears’ followed with the crowd singing along loudly with lots of crowd surfing and phones recording the song. ‘Fingers Crossed’ came next, keeping the crowd sated and noisy, before the Swedish punks admitted their lack of rehearsal of these songs, and then they played ‘Sense and Sensibility’. ‘Fox’ was, unsurprisingly a huge crowd pleaser, as was ‘Twenty Two’.

Mathias declared that the crowd was “the shit”, before playing ‘Nothing’. The lack of rehearsal was blatantly obvious as Millencolin had to start the song again before playing ‘Olympic’. The sound quality at Metro Freo didn’t help, the venue’s sound system is set up for a dance club, so throughout the night, the vibrations were overwhelming with too few people around and the sound was muffled and unclear with too many people in the space. ‘The Ballad’ got things back on track as the whole crowd sang along, before seguing into ‘Farewell My Hell’. The older tracks got the crowd moving along the most, such as the final song ‘Mr Clean’, which had girls on shoulders and the crowd’s singing clearer than the band. Leaving the stage after ‘Mr Clean’, the band returned for a five-song encore rounding off the night with a favourite of both newer and older Millencolin fans ‘No Cigar’.

Millencolin loves Australia and Australia clearly loves Millencolin, as evident by the crowd and the unrelenting joy everyone experienced. But sound issues and a support act that blew the roof off the venue, made the Swedish kings a little less impressive than the fans know they are. Saying that, Millencolin will always be loved by their fans and by this reviewer.

Gig Review by Carys Hurcom @CarysWoS

Revisit our interview with Millencolin's Mathias Färm right here

Photo Gallery by Kim Anderson. Facebook: Shoot The Wicked Witch Insta: @shootthewickedwitch
Please credit Kim Anderson and Wall of Sound if you repost.

Goldfinger

Millencolin