Live Reviews : Caliban (Melbourne) – 16/08/2008

REVIEW: Caliban w/ Her Nightmare, Corner Hotel, Melbourne – 16th August, 2008

Courtesy of Mathew Boelsen

I’ll admit, I’m not the biggest fan of hardcore. There’s just a little too much distorted fury for my liking. So it was probably for the best that I started the night across town at the Arthouse to catch heavy-as-fuck band Separatist tear me a new one. After that, surely even hardcore would sound sweet and melodic.

Making our way across to richmond twenty minutes later for Calibans first headlining tour of Australia, it was a pleasant sight to see the Corner has had a makeover (no, I havent been there for a while). The crowd was a pleasant mix of all sorts, from emo and goth to punk and of course, hardcorers. You know, the sorts of people that weren’t drawn to a top quality night of olympic action on the telly…

Local boys her nightmare had been given the mantle of main support for the entire national length of the tour, so even though I hadn’t heard of them I guessed they must have been pretty well known. When they hit the stage, with their singer in the traditional hardcore uniform of white singlet and hardcore beret thing, it was pretty clear that these guys have built themselves a dedicated following. A large part of the crowd could be seen singing along to most of the set, and the traditional hardcore pit, involving people trying to kick the shit out of each other, quickly expanded to about the same size as the stage. This burning mass of hardcore rage only got hotter with the singer calling for the crowd to “get fucking violent” (his words, not mine). Their style is definitely more in the traditional modern hardcore style of Hatebreed than the melodic Caliban, and the sound mix was as clear as the night sky outside. After this kind of warming up, the job was already half done before the main showpiece had even been seen.

After a short but sweet piano intro, the curtains were drawn to the near capacity crowd at the Corner and Caliban hit the stage. They came out hard with Nowhere to Run, No Place to Hide, probably the heaviest song off their latest album, which got the crowd going in a timely fashion. Their uniforms really have to be seen to be believed: all white shirts with painted on blood splatters and goth makeup, hitting the mark somewhere between cool and just taking the piss. The next track wiped away any distraction their outfits might have presented. I Rape Myself, gave the crowd their first chance to hear guitarist Dennis Schmidt’s clean vocals for the night, and it’s pleasing to note that they didn’t disappoint. If anything, his singing was better than whats on the album, which feel just a little bit too clean. The roughness of the live environment certainly brought out the best from his voice.

Unfortunately, the band weren’t allowed to build on this solid base, as technical issues caused about a three minute delay as sound techs scrambled across the stage to fix some sound tech ‘issue’. This gave singer Andreas Dörner an opportunity to show us how quirky Germans keep a crowd entertained when they’re screaming for blood (no joke). It was refreshing to hear him talk informally to the crowd, when so many other bands of this genre feel the need to keep up the character of tough guy going throughout the whole show. This was a theme throughout the set, with the fellas clearly enjoying themselves up on stage, running around like it was play time in school. Andreas also took this opportunity to encourage audience members to climb up for some stage diving action. And this offer the crowd duly accepted when the problems finally sorted themselves out and ze Germans got the show going again.

The first time I heard of the band was when they were announced for Wacken 2006. Through a combination of warm German summer air and cold beer, I managed to sleep through their entire set, so it was only about three months later scanning through youtube videos that they caught my attention with their „Wall of Death“. This is where the singer gets the crowd to split down the middle so that there is a gap about the same size as the stage in between them. After inciting the pit into their most primal hardcore fury, both sides charge at each other, all arms swinging, obscenities yelled – an impressive sight no matter what your taste in music.

Clearly I wasn’t the only person waiting for this event. As soon as the words “Wall of Death” were spoken after only their third song of the night, The Revenge, the crowd were quick to choose their side. Queue bone crunching guitar intro to I’ve Sold Myself, and off they went. Now, it would be a waste if all this mindless violence was to go to waste, so I am pleased to report that one guy at least had to be dragged semi conscious out of the pit and off into the night.

And so the show continued unabatted, playing tracks spread evenly across their last five albums all the way back to 2003’s Shadow Hearts. Yes, you read it right, they’ve released an album a year for the last five years, and are arguably getting better with each one. The show progressed just like all their albums, keeping to the formula of heaviness, soft chorus, breakdown, and repeat. Caliban never seem to travel too far from the formula, but as is evident from their growing popularity, its a style that they do very well.

The sound quality was once again top notch, and allowed for general enjoyment of even the songs i didnt know. The lads finished the set on an aggressive note with their track Its Our Burden to Bleed. After thanking the crowd, they left the stage to cheers and deathly screams, but soon returned for what seems to have been an unscheduled encore (it wasn’t on the set list, and they spent about a minute retuning their instruments).

Playing Nothing is Forever and the all too appropriately titled Goodbye gave all of the many crowdsurfers one last chance for glory, and also finished the set off beautifully. Smiles all round in the crowd, these guys definitely know how to put on a good show. Certainly recommended to anyone when the guys make it down here again, which going by the success of this night, won’t be too far away.

Setlist:

• Nowhere to run, no place to hide
• I Rape myself
• The Revenge
• I’ve Sold Myself
• Forsaken Horizon
• Stigmata
• I Will never let you Down
• Vicious Circle
• My Time has Come
• Stop Running
• Its Our Burden To Bleed
• ———-
• Nothing is Forever
• Goodbye

Rating: 8/10