Words by: Belinda Quick
Photos by: Shaun Wilkinson
Special thanks to The Phoenix AU for having us!
“Sing a song of seasons, Something bright in all! Flowers in the summer, Fires in the fall!” – Robert Louis Stephenson, Autumn Fires
It’s been just shy of ten months since MEMPHIS MAY FIRE unleashed their Shapeshifter energy upon Australian audiences. Supporting ATREYU in celebrating 20 Years of The Curse, the Texan’s inaugural performance on the Lion Arts Factory stage arguably garnered the greater reception and response.
Post-visit, legions of fans took to social media, professing dismay at missing out on the ‘absolute mayhem’ of 2025’s five-night capital city tour. Matty Mullins attesting, “Seeing and hearing” such an outpouring of emotion, the band’s decision to host back-to-back visits was undeniably clear. “We didn’t want to wait another 5 years to come back to make it up to them”, the firefighters of Australia thusly earning a handful-more opportunities to see the chiefs.
Turning up the temperature on an already hotly anticipated tour, the announcement of MMF’s traveling companions, very special guests BLESSTHEFALL, set Australian metalcore aficionados ablaze. Legends of the scene for more than 20 years, an avid touring outfit of the 2010s but strangers to our shorelines for over a decade, recently releasing new music for the next generation, young and old rejoiced, and the American co-headliners did not disappoint.
Sydney stalwarts, SIENNA SKIES stride singlefile across the stage. Guitarists Michael Sankey & Nick Musgrave leading by example arch their arms, before the air turns aggressive and the band Let It Burn. A Predetermined Outcome, the explosivity contrasts the haunting echo of the crowd. Thomas Pirozzi, quintessentially Australian in his command of dual vocals, Cut Me Off guard in Pillow Talk. The new track invoking fairylights, an Elated response cascades into the emotional plea: Don’t Let Me Go, ‘never again’ and not in this ‘goddamn Mess’ of a world.
Returning to Australia after a prolonged and deeply felt absence, Arizona’s Blessthefall emerges, the Phoenix rising. Frontman Beau Bokan christening the pit dwellers with bottled and imbibed offspray, the King is Cutthroat. Beckoning us closer just to spit fire in moments of purposeful pause, bassist and unclean vocal powerhouse, Jared Warth screams, “If you came to party” it’s time to move those Hollow Bodies!
Commanding their co-headliner position, performing the same length set and to an adoring (some might say, ravenous) audience, much like MMF in 2025, 2026’s Version 2.0 is full of Youngbloods and infernal heat. Satirically sending themselves to the GALLOWS, the next-in-line from tracks taken from the latest release, mallxcore bites with the Venom of a taipan, yet spat from the mouths of these Promised Ones is smooth as honey upon my ears.
Crowdsurfing Guys cascade, several saved by the hand of God; Bokan catching, amongst others, Adelaide icon and great friend, Danny Boy. Midflight, audience and artist come together, encouraging a band of followers – after coyly inquiring after the safety of the security guards, of course. Calling upon the captive and captivated to “light up the room”, BTF Wake the Dead with the penultimate track, and lament: “It’s been 12 years since we’ve been here… it won’t be that long until we come back”; Hey Babe, there’s always time for just one more song.
Pandemonium overthrowing the Paralyzed, Matty Mullins screams: “Adelaaaaaaide! We are Memphis May Fire!” An opening duet off The Other Side, the successive start of the following quartet threatens to Bleed Me Dry “just a couple of songs in”. In perfect chord progression, pulling on the heartstrings of Somebody, everybody, empathetic to the Misery of those back home in the States in the currently volatile climate, MMF is already reaching boiling point.
Rap-rock bouncing, bassist Cory Elder’s accentuated – almost theatric – choreography and limitless energy sees the crowd Left For Dead. The contagion taking hold, the Infection setting in, unanimous hands reach for fresh air as much as for a symbolic touch of the idols, onlookers push past the point of Overdose.
In a cheekily taunting display of assonance, Mullins croons, “Alright, Adelaide”. Following up with a characteristically charismatic wink and mischievous turn of the tongue, The Sinner subliminally invites us to embrace our Vices, strutting like a peacock across the Lion Arts Factory stage as if he owns it, perfectly hitting notes amongst the chaos of the moment.
Taken, Adelaide (like the eastern states before them) plays Make Believe alongside the Americans, fantasising that the real world doesn’t wait beyond these bricked walls. Collaborative in closing, we allow ourselves the luxury to “go back, all the way to 2012”, a time contrasted by Chaotic venture and youthful beauty, categorised by naive excess and The Fight Within.
Love Is War, black is white, up & down, Blood & Water; embodying yesterday, with all its teachings of tragic truths, MMF soundtrack today with energy as effervescent as ever, and from Fall to the Fire, just like the seasons themselves, they and this feeling is evergreen.
GALLERY
MEMPHIS MAY FIRE
BLESSTHEFALL
SIENNA SKIES
