Live Reviews : AMDBL, Norse, Aeon of Horus, Apparitions of Null @ Reverence Hotel, Melbourne 06/07/2014

Trigger Warning: This article contains my opinions. Please experience these bands yourself and make up your own mind.

The two main phrases of this article will be “criminally small crowd” and “do something on stage.” You could probably even stop reading now.

Hadal Maw performed. Unfortunately that’s all I can say about the band as I missed their show on account of the night actually starting at the advertised time, a world first. A friend told me they killed it.

Apparitions of Null were the first band I did see, playing an ambitious half hour, “single song” set to a criminally small audience. I really liked their audacity, their singer’s surprising clean vocals, their drummers finesse, and their hair, but I really wish they would do something on stage. Granted, most of their song (that sounds fun to say, like using the proper tense of “data”) was introspective, and my only complaint is that some sections repeated far too many times. I understand they’re building to a crescendo, but it sounded like they were filling time.

In front of the biggest criminally small crowd of the night, Aeon of Horus were pretty damn good from the get go. Their singer should be lauded for how well he handled the small but attentive crowd; he instantly engaging and sounded great. When these guys hit it, they hit it hard, though I didn’t like so much of the stop/start style of their music. Aeon were awesome to listen to, but I was a little disappointed it took them to the end of their set to start doing something on stage and putting on a show.

Fun fact: I had a friend in high school who wouldn’t shut up about Norse. Turns out, he was totally right to big note them (though he was still an annoying cunt about it). Having never heard them before I had no idea what to expect, and to be fair I still don’t know how I’d describe it now aside from Really Fucking Good. There’s black, death, thrash, groove – it’s hard to define but it’s awesome to listen to. Again though, they mostly just fucking stood there, which is fine because they sounded so tight, professional and heavy, but god damn it do something. We’re watching you. It’s awkward.
A band this good really shouldn’t be playing in front of such a criminally small crowd. Their second last song in particular is still playing through my head the day after.

A Million Dead Birds Laughing were, as always, intense. The most active of all the bands on the night, their “new” material (at least since I last saw them) is much more thought out, musical and groovey than the usual 50 second grindcore we know and love. Their singer is also a fucking beast of a human who looks like he regularly eats meals the size of the crowd they had, and likely the same composition. They’re as good as they’ve always been, if not better.

Here’s the main problems I’ve had with local live shows – small crowds and boring bands. I don’t know which came first; are bands not putting on good performances because no one came to their show, or a show numbers small because bands aren’t putting on good shows? I’m fairly hopeful that one problem can’t exist without the other, so here’s hoping we all chip in.

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