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Live Reviews : TesseracT, Plini & Caligula’s Horse @ The Zoo, Brisbane 14/10/2015

By on October 15, 2015

It’s been some time since I have arrived bright and early to a show to wait on the street for half an hour or so to get in, not that I ever intentionally miss any openers but this was a great nostalgic feeling to open up what I could only assume would be on face value one of the gigs of the year. I’m actually from Sydney but when we had booked our trip to the Gold Coast and I saw the show was announced during that week, arrangements HAD to be made.

Plini hit the stage a little later than his planned 7:30 and this was the rhythm of the night but it seemed liked everyone got their full sets. Plini is an instrumental group fronted by a young gentleman of the same name who are honestly taking the world by storm. Plini’s plethora of cameos on many modern releases has given him some infamy has a force to be reckoned with and rightly so. His band is completed by session drummer extraordinaire, Troy Wright and Helix Nebula brothers Simon Grove and Jake Howsam Lowe. Playing a mixed setlist going from their backcatalogue they took us through perfectly executed versions of all of their songs from the djentier Paper Moon to my favourite, the ever-optimistic ‘Tarred and Feathered’. Beautiful, uplifting sounds that are great to watch as the band makes their virtuosic sound appear simply effortless. Plini certainly isn’t your typical frontman but his awkward charm is endearing and I feel like everyone in a town outside his own wanted good for these guys, they are just that likeable. I turned to a friend I hadn’t seen in some years from Queensland who had the “please take my money” eyes, mid-set. Plini has cleverly pressed a CD version of all of his EP’s together which was nicely priced at $15, I am sure many people will take advantage of this.

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Probably the main drawcard for me even though Tesseract is one of my favourite bands is the mighty Caligula’s Horse. With their wonderful album ‘Bloom’ that I was lucky enough to review and that you can read on Metal Obsession, I was keen to see some new material live. Lucky for me we got to see 4 new tracks and whilst it’s hard to say they were a highlight as every single song was received like it was played by everyone’s favourite band and being their hometown, this was probably the case for a lot of attendees (including this outside of towner and his wife). ‘Bloom’ and ‘Marigold’, the new album’s opening 1-2 punch was also our live 1-2 – amazing, dynamic and emotional music. The forceful grooves and perfect tightness of the band leading up to their month long European tour with Shining left me wowed. I felt moved by the music in a way that I hadn’t before. Stellar stuff! Just a little annoying that as the support band the drums were to the side but that couldn’t be avoided. My album favourite ‘Daughter of the Mountain’ was sheer bliss live. The drums, guitars and bass created juggernaut locomotive force all night while Jim Grey’s delightful tones took us from the tributary ‘Firelight’ to crowd favourite ‘The City Has No Empathy’. Everyone got into this one and these guys simply slayed and were my pick for band of the night.

The main men of Tesseract came on to play a powerful djenting set of pure ferocity with a mixture of all their albums’ material. I remember seeing Dan with the band when they opened for Periphery in Sydney and his off-the-chain stage personality and killer vocals stayed with me for years. He is a little more restrained these days but what a voice! Amazingly executing all of the songs that he didn’t originally feature on from ‘Altered State’ with ease. The whole band was tight, percussive and enveloping. I can’t imagine that anyone would want to get more out of this gig than what the band offered. Still think maybe one of the other guys in the band could do some growls other than Amos as they remind me of Mike Portnoy’s attempts but that is a minor criticism. Instead of feeding the “Which singer is better” argument that often arises out of many mum’s basement YouTube commenters, Dan himself gestured that the Altered State songs were extremely hard to sing and that he wanted to give it up for Ashe, his friend and a great singer. The show was phenomenal display of professionalism and about the best that metal has to offer at the moment. I couldn’t have asked for a better setlist. So much groove, so much fun – elation. If there are tickets available in your town, please buy them and go!