Photos by: Charlyn Cameron
I don’t know about you, but after a long week at work I like to un-wind watching music. This tour had me out on a school night, but this also has its advantages… less traffic, less drunks in the city, and mostly a smoother night.
Being all ages show, I took advantage of going up stairs and watching the show with the under 18s after being told, ‘You come up here, there’s no drinking or pass outs’. What a dream I thought to myself. I didn’t particularly feel like being covered in some sweaty dudes drunk sweat in the pit tonight anyway! It worked in my favor because I had a great spot and could watch everything unfold around me.
I’m kicking myself, because I couldn’t get in early enough to catch Bloom or Heavensgate. By all accounts, I was told they crushed it! I walked into a massive group sing along of Whitesnake’s Is This Love, at least I knew the crowd were warmed up and ready to thrown down.
Shortly after arriving Currents took to the stage, starting off with Never There. A perfect song to ease us into the journey they were about to take us on. I looked around and saw minimal people on their phones, (apart from me looking like as asshole writing notes), the crowd was quickly in the palm of their hands.
The crowd sing alongs were massive and there were no shortage of people passionately singing their songs back to them. A warm welcome from the Aussie fans!
The riff to Better Days rang out through the venue and the energy shifted up to another level. They sound amazing. You wouldn’t think this was night 1 of the tour, this sounded more like they had been at it for weeks. They confessed later in the show that this was the first time they have played together in 4-months, and they sure could have fooled me.
Side note: the whole time they were playing I could see these four guys desperately trying to get the band’s attention and acknowledge them, to no avail of course. They couldn’t get a look in no matter how much they waved, orchestrated their own head bangers ball or screamed out and it became quite entertaining for me to watch unfold. We will come back to these fellas, insert bookmark here…
After ripping through 14 songs, Brian Wille addressed the crowd.
‘29 hours of flights just to do these shows. I could honestly leave tomorrow because this was fucking amazing’
I guess this means we did our job right!
Currents really are impressive. They this ability to play beautifully haunting music you lose yourself in, and no sooner flip you on your ass and get HEAVY like it’s nothing. I could have easily watched these guys play over and over & still enjoyed the show.
After Currents’ set, everyone went about doing whatever they do at metal gigs. Ya know, like blowing balloon poodles and swords to declare war with each other. Basically putting on their own half-time show entertainment. It never ceases to amaze me what I see at shows, and this is why I love our weird metal community so much.
We were tricked into thinking Chelsea Grin were starting as the lights went down, and the background music stopped playing. However, we were instead waiting for 10 minutes in silence, occasionally cheering on a rogue guitar tech, thinking it was the band finally coming out. The crowd eventually had enough and began chanting ‘We want Chelsea’. Who knows what happened there, but eventually Chelsea Grin took to the stage, I like to think due to our encouragement.
I was excited to watch Chelsea Grin play – in my high school days I played them a lot on my iPod and was eager to see what they are like in 2025. To which I can confirm they are still heavy as fuck!
The tone was set immediately, and the feeling in the room turned thick. I watched the crowd turn into crab lords, sporting the stank face. It was golden! Everyone was straight into ‘Fuck shit up’ mode and started up circle pit without being instructed.
After ripping through Hostage & Sing To The Grave, Tom Barber announced they are going to give us a throwback, and soon as they started playing Cheyne Stokes. I was stoked to have that unmistakable feeling of nostalgia wash over me. Whilst also thinking, ‘Fuck, 2010 was 15 years ago? Where has the time gone?’
Barber was engaging with the crowd and managed to get his hands on a balloon poodle that he propped up on his shoulder. I will insert here that the guys we bookmarked earlier finally got their moment of recognition with an approving nod and point from the band, and you could see how wrapped they were with themselves. Tom would have no idea the ordeal they’ve suffered tonight… haha.
Before playing Death Rose, Barber asked:
‘Wall of death. Ever been in one? I’ll take your silly silence as submission.‘
Then proceeded to do the universal hand gesture for splitting the crowd. If you have ever been to The Tivoli in Brisbane, you’d know that the space is generous, but not massive, so everyone was squeezed in from pillar to post and managed to nail it!
For good measure, during the next song, we were asked to pull out our phone torches for something I like to now fondly call the ‘See, metalheads aren’t scary’ moment. Makes for a nice Snapchat to your Mum, I guess…
When this tour was announced, I knew it was going to be a good one, and I wasn’t disappointed. I was super impressed by the turn-out for this show, and it was amazing to see everyone singing along to every word and showing their appreciation for bands that are willing to travel over the other side of the world to put on a show for us.
BLOOM
CURRENTS
