Review by Billy Geary
After spending the last few months writing for their next album, Perth progressive rockers Karnivool were back in Melbourne for three sold out shows. Friday night was the second show in the huge run around Australia, with Karnivool showcasing a few new tracks to tide fans over until the album’s release.
Sydney based post rockers sleepmakeswaves and Melbourne locals Redcoats were the lucky musicians selected as supports.
The wall of sound from sleepmakeswaves made for an outstanding start to the evening. Despite being entirely instrumental, the quartet quickly won over the entire crowd as they progressed through their short set. The majority of their set was taken from their 2011 album …and so we destroyed everything, with ‘To You They Are Birds, To Me They Are Voices In The Forest’ and ‘(Hello) Cloud Mountain’ being particular highlights.
Conversely, the psychedelic/stoner rock of Redcoats provided a very different change of pace. After doing well on Triple J in recent times, Redcoats are starting to garner a decent sized fan base, along with some great support slots. Their set on Friday was super tight, however at times the tracks seemed to meld into one another, especially in the middle of the set. By far, the standout tracks were new single ‘Raven’ and epic closer in ‘Dreamshaker.’ If anything, Friday night showed that Redcoats are a great live act, but they also need to find some more memorable songs to fill out their set.
The five men in Karnivool stepped out onto stage to an enormous roar from the crowd, before joining front man Ian Kenny in singing the opening to ‘Change.’ As the full band began in the second part of the song, one thing became very clear – Karnivool are arguably the tightest live band in Australia, with the sound being absolutely perfect. New track in ‘The Refusal’ saw the quintet in heavy mode with bassist Jon Stockman adding screams throughout the track – something quite new for Karnivool.
‘COTE’ and ‘Goliath’ saw the rooms energy rise even higher, whilst the elephant stampede like bass guitar of ‘Simple Boy’ sounded absolutely huge in the Hifi’s expanses. ‘COTE’ in particular had nearly the entire room screaming the lyrics back at the stage, going down as one of the highlights of the night. Two more new songs were played during the middle section of the set, one full of disjointed guitars and complex drum patterns, the other being slightly more straightforward in the vein of ‘Umbra.’ The opening riff of ‘Roquefort’ reverberated around the Hifi, chaos ensued, with bodies in the mosh flying everywhere and the energy at stupidly high levels.
The encore began with new track ‘Aeons,’ a rhythmic based track akin to ‘Simple Boy,’ before live staple ‘Themata’ threatened to tear the entire roof off the Hifi bar, such was the energy in the room. Ending the set with universal fan favourite ‘New Day’ saw Kenny almost drowned out at different stages, with so many punters singing along. It was an amazing way to end what had been an incredible set.
Friday night was confirmation that Karnivool are one of, if not the best band in Australia. Their incredibly tight live show coupled with a set chock full of outstanding songs, both old and new was all the evidence required to show why it was so easy for them to sell out three Melbourne shows in a row. Bring on the new album!
Artists: Karnivool, Redcoats, sleepmakeswaves
Venue: The Hi-Fi, Melbourne
Photo Gallery: Karnivool @ The Hi-Fi, Melbourne with Redcoats, sleepmakeswaves
Photos by: Annie Wilson – Amped Photography for Life Music Media