Live Reviews : Iced Earth & Elm Street @ 170 Russell, Melbourne 16/03/2014

Images: Len Panecki
Words: Jonathon Besenko

Click here to view the full Iced Earth and Elm Street Melbourne gallery.

I feel the first thing I have to say about this gig is that it very easily could have turned into a disaster. Pretty much nothing went as planned on the night. That being said, however, the Iced Earth show that took place at 170 Russell (formerly Billboard the Venue) was for this reviewer one certainly not easily forgotten, and thankfully not all for the wrong reasons.

Doors were meant to open at 8pm, but everyone in the line didn’t actually end up inside until about quarter past to half an hour later due to delays. I later found out this was due to complications with Iced Earth not arriving at the venue on time for the VIP Meet & Greets due to being stuck in Formula 1 traffic. The meet and greets were still taking place once everyone had eventually made their way inside, and you could see the nervous, frantic faces of the many roadies and management people scurrying about trying to get everything sorted before Elm Street entered stage-right, being due to start their set at 8.45. Speaking of management and roadies, that’s one thing I feel needs mention here. I have to hand it to these guys and gals. They worked their arses off, attending to every complication and mishap that occurred in a timely manner. All the shit could very easily have overwhelmed them but they handled it extremely well.

Elm Street

8.45 rolled around, and as Elm Street roared onto stage bathed in hues of red, green, and blue, band frontman Ben Batres screamed, ‘Let’s get this party started!’ And that they did. While it seems to be the case with any opener, despite the lack of crowd enthusiasm at the start (there were only a few sporadic headbangers and dude’s throwing up the horns here-and-there), Elm Street never once let that hold them back. Even if at times during the early stages it felt as if they were just playing for themselves, the traditional heavy metal quartet thundered across the stage with the boldness and – to use a Brit term – sheer bollocks you would expect from a band as heavily praised as Elm Street have become over the past couple years.

One of the many impressive aspects of their set was Tomislav Perkovic’s specialist drum kit. I’d never seen anything like it before. Instead of the usual run-of-the-mill kit, his formed a metal archway lined with overhead cymbals and snare drums to which Perkovic would alternate between playing up and down; all without missing a single note, and, excuse the cliché, ripping the kit a new one. I was thoroughly impressed, and it helped move Elm Street’s set and stage presence away from the countless other bands in the trad heavy metal/thrash scenes that all employ similar styles and setups.

Things had finally started to pick up the pace between their second and fourth tracks, with the crowd warming to Elm Street’s undeniably powerful and infectious style, but then something tragic happened. At first, I wasn’t even sure what had just occurred. After shredding up a storm, Aaron Adie suddenly collapsed on stage. Quickly helped off stage by his fellow band members, for what felt like a long five to ten minutes, people were musing amongst themselves what had happened to him as Blind Guardian’s “The Bard’s Song (In the Forest)” filled the worried venue. Finally Ben came out on stage and announced that Adie had dislocated his knee. As the gasps dissipated, 170 Russell fell on silence. Then Ben went on to say, and here’s where I have to hand it to him, ‘the guy shredded too hard and dislocated his knee. But that’s what you get for shredding too hard, man!’ Turning on its head what could have been a real dampener on the evening, Ben went on to state, ‘this was our 38^th show with Iced Earth and it felt so good to do it in our home town’ – met by great applause – ‘we could keep going, but we won’t play with one brother down. So enjoy Iced Earth guys and have a great fucking night!’ Instead of letting the incident sour over the crowd, Elm Street took a terrible situation and tried to make the most of it; opting to keep the crowd excited for Iced Earth, and ending with getting the crowd involved in a huge, supportive chant for Adie. ‘Show him your appreciation. Let him hear you from back there, Melbourne!’ The great support and applause from the crowd was an amazing thing to see, and Elm Street handled the whole incident professionally and quickly, proclaiming at the end, ‘The next time we’re here, we’ll put on a really killer gig!’ Editor’s note: one good piece of news, however. Posted just over a day ago, according to Elm Street’s official Facebook page, Adie was taken to hospital, but is now “back in action and no doubt his recovery will be just as fast as his playing”.

Elm Street

While Iced Earth probably could have begun their set a lot earlier than they did, an hour rolled by with the band opting to come out on stage at 10 o’clock as originally planned. As the lights dimmed and the intro to “Plagues of Babylon” filled the venue, the excitement and anticipation boiled over. While a roadie confusingly remained on stage at first, his presence was given light later on. He was Jon Schaffer’s guitar tech for the night, and it seemed Jon was in for an evening of technical difficulties concerning guitar and amp failures. One upside to this was the fact where for the first few songs, Schaffer’s guitar and amp continually kept shorting out (it must have done so about five to seven times), Troy Seele, the band’s lead guitarist would pick up the slack to keep the rhythm’s going and the melody consistent.

The other part to this less-than-desirable saga of problems was Stu Block’s vocals. Where at first, I wasn’t sure whether it was the acoustics in the venue or what, I as well as many others immediately noticed his vocals felt off. He wasn’t able to reach the higher octaves he usually crushes. Throughout “Plagues of Babylon” and “V” (of which an amusing V for Vendetta mask was placed at the front of session-drummer Jon Dette’s kit), Stu was struggling. Following this, instead of opting to ignore the issue and keep on playing as some bands do, Iced Earth decided to openly explain the situation; which I think was the right thing to do. ‘We’ve been dealing with some shit,’ Schaffer began, ‘Losing one of our brothers in Elm Street who suffered a knee injury, Stu’s blown out his vocals, and my guitar is fucked. Sometimes shit just happens.’ Thankfully though, they didn’t let all the crap weigh them down. In fact, I think it fuelled them even more in a way. Stu chimed in, saying proudly, ‘I’m dealing with a really bad blown out throat, but I’m gonna sing my heart out. I’m gonna soldier on through this.’ Noting how everyone had paid good money to come down for the show, the guys said they were going to give it their all and do the absolute best they could with what they had, with Stu also apologising if at times his voice sounded like ‘a dying cat’. The crowd embraced the whole fiasco and cheered them on just as hard as if the night had gone smoothly. Jon and Stu then shared a moment, with Jon going on to say, ‘no has ever fit this band better than this one right here’ before mentioning all the DVDs and shows they’ve done together since Stu’s entry into the band.

Iced Earth

Iced Earth powered on throughout the whole night, and thankfully by the time “The Hunter” swung around, Schaffer had found a guitar (a striped red-and-white Les Paul) which didn’t give him any further issues. I’ve got to give Iced Earth kudos. While conditions were far from ideal, the band still gave it their all, and Stu pushed himself as hard as he could. Continuously engaging with the crowd, he would encourage fist-pumping, getting all of us to mimic the opening of “The Hunter”, as well as just his overall charismatic stage-presence. You could see how much he loved it when people joined in. His whole face lit up and that million-dollar smile of his would be planted firmly across his lips. Watching it unfold, it seemed to me that where the crowd would feed off Stu’s enthusiasm, Stu would in turn feed off their own, boosting his morale and enhancing his performance (for example, his rendition of “Blessed Are You” was nigh perfect all things considered).

I’ve got to say, when Stu first started singing on the night, I was rather underwhelmed and honestly I didn’t expect the show to go far beyond that at that point. But something I always love to see in people is character and conviction. And Stu (as well as Jon and the others) brought forth both of those things in spades. When he openly confessed to sounding like ‘a dying cat’, that took guts; and moreover when he said that despite all he was going to give the night everything he had to ensure the fans left with a smile on their faces and not disappointment, I truly believe he achieved that as well. Everyone still seemed to be having a great time. And Stu was pushing, and I mean really pushing. His voice was blown. But he just kept going and didn’t once stop. He would still aim for the high Halford-esque notes as best he could, as well as the guttural growls you hear in certain songs of theirs.

One of the highlights for me was watching Stu and Jon consistently keep one another going, at one stage hugging, and at many others giving each other little pep talks between vocals. It’s in my opinion that I think without each other on the night, those two wouldn’t have made it through. They were the crutches for one another’s injuries (whether physically, emotionally or technically); the ones who lifted them up even though everything else told them to stay down. And while I can’t fully confirm this, I think they changed the order of the set slightly and which songs they sang as they went, subsequently choosing titles that Stu would be able to sing with less difficulty too.

Iced Earth

When Iced Earth announced the show was coming to a close, there were those in the crowd that cried out in protest wanting more. Stu then said: ‘You know, brother, I would love to play fifty songs for you but you know it is what it is. But we love you brothers and sisters from the bottom of our blackened metal hearts.’ Ending with a respectful mention to Elm Street, Iced Earth finished duties for the night with a welcomed declaration to ‘support your local scene’ before closing with a crowd chant of ‘Iced motherfucking Earth!’.

To return to the point I noted at the start of this review, tonight could have gone very far south. But thanks to the expertise of the management and roadie crew (also like to give a shout out to the light engineers – the golden rays saturating the band on songs like “Blessed Are You” looked amazing!), alongside the sheer professionalism of both Elm Street and Iced Earth helped to make the night far better than it otherwise would have been, and one to look back on without an immediate bad taste in your mouth.

Related Posts

• 

  El Colosso – Forgotten Ancestors
• 

  Depravity – Grand Malevolence
• 

  Pioneering Aussie metal drummer Matt ‘Skitz’ announces 2021 national tour.
• 

  Be’lakor tease new album studio updates.