| AFI | |
| with After The Fall, Sense Of Purpose | |
| 9/8/2003, The Hi Fi Bar, Melbourne. | |
|
Well, this was one of the most anticipated punk/emo shows in Melbourne for a long while I reckon. The show itself sold hour within a few hours of going on sale a few months ago, and there seemed to be more than the usual amount of people out the front trying to get tickets to get in. Doors opened at 8:30, I got there around 9 or so, and still had to wait 15 minutes in line to get in...
Sense Of Purpose I arrived and Sense Of Purpose were already into their set - probably about half way through. They were alright - pretty straight up hardcore I thought. Nothing spectacular, just an opening band... After The Fall There were a fair few After The Fall t-shirts floating around, and one of my friends played me some of their stuff about 6 months ago (and I thought it weren't too bad) - so I was looking forward to seeing them strut their stuff. I must say, I was impressed. So much so that I picked up one of their e.p's. Nice song structures - a little choppy, very melodic, interesting guitar work. Their singer has quite a presence on stage - and a great voice. Listening to the e.p. now, I thought he came across better live - perhaps the e.p. was done a while ago. In any case, very cool stuff - I will endeavour to check them out again... AFI A Fire Inside. Wow. A moniker could not describe a band more aptly than theirs. This band was just ALIVE on stage - raw energy I haven't seen in a long long time. The promo for the band on the Frontier Touring website said:
I wholeheartedly agree. I can honestly not remember a higher energy show than this one. I didn't really get a full set list of the show unfortunately, as they played a lot of older stuff that I wasn't familiar with (I only have "The Art Of Drowning" and "Sing The Sorrow" albums). Here's what songs I recognized: * Miseria Cantare (what a song to open with - a sold-out crowd screaming along "Love your hate, your faith lost. You are now one of us" (in no order at all) * The Leaving Song Pt. 2 * Bleed Black * Silver and Cold * Dancing Through Sunday (definitely the highlight - guitar solo (with tapping) was awesome) * Girl's Not Grey * Death Of Seasons * The Great Disappointment * Paper Airplanes * Morningstar * The Lost Souls * Ever And A Day * Sacrifice Theory * Days Of The Phoenix * ... plus a bunch of old tracks... In any case, I loved the set - they played most of the "Sing The Sorrow" album, and playing wise, they were pretty spot on. The guitarist was pretty amazing, I find it pretty hard to believe that someone who throws their guitar around that much while playing it can actually manage to hit the right notes (admittedly, he did slow down his movement a bit for the really hard parts... hehehe) And Davey is the ultimate frontman - perfect singing and screaming, dressed like a rock star, and during the encore stepped out into the crowd (e.g. was standing, held up by the hands of the punters, and then walked in a metre or so) and kept singing, note-perfect. They also acknowledged that they hadn't been here before, and as a result would play some old tunes for us. They played a song that Davey introduced as "We only played this track in 1996, but seeing as you guys couldn't have seen it then, we'll play it now", and in another instance, let the crowd pick between two songs by the cheers given after each name. I thought that was pretty cool... Given that their shows sold-out around the country, I'd say they'll be back again soon, and if they are, try and get along - it was a great show - and these days, who complain for a measly $29.00? |