The Butterfly Effect, Hammers, These Four Walls @ HQ Complex, Adelaide 23/8/2019
Eight years after their last musical output, one of Australia’s greatest and unique rock bands recently released a new single Unbroken to a flurry of whispers about a possible forthcoming album. Reformed, however totally casual about it, The Butterfly Effect tonight are on stage doing what they do best. Enchanting an audience.
Opening are fellow Queenslanders These Four Walls who are taking this opportunity to tour the country with both hands. Their enthusiastic front man Steve Gibb zigs zags and jives his way across the stage as the band belt out enjoyable big arena sounding rock. The music is catchy with heavy riffs and big choruses, think Nickelback’s hooks with Alter Bridge’s musicianship. The confidence they have in themselves and their performance shows when they casually drop in an audacious cover of Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love into the mix.
The only thing understated about Hammers is their entrance. They start like it’s a soundcheck until you realise front man Fish is actually reciting lyrics in his broad Aussie drawl. Then bang! The riffs – heavy, slow and grooving – arrive and have heads bobbing around the packed venue. Fish plays to every corner in the room, while band pick up the pace rattling the concrete building with the fun stoner rock vibe. This is a party dude and Hammers is the perfect stoner party band.
Clint Boge, Ben Hall, Glenn Edmond and Kirt Goedhart, otherwise known as The Butterfly Effect, have always been a band that don’t just play a show to a room of fans. They play a show to your emotions and feelings, using a palette that includes melancholy and beauty in equal measure to elevate your conscience.
Opening with the atmospheric and haunting Filing Silence and Crave, the band begins to paint that picture of beauty however when Always, with that delicious riff, kicks in, the venue erupts, chanting the lyrics back at Boge.
The roof is further raised off it hinges for A Slow Descent as Boge parades the stage in his ‘I Love Adelaide’ t-shirt like the circus ring master he is. They choose this as the perfect time to drop the new single Unbroken into the set.
The patrons are drinking the specially brewed TBE beer, are in good spirits, dancing and singing to the heavens as the band reach into each chapter of their back catalogue, finishing the set with amazing performances of Aisles Of White and World’s On Fire.
The Butterfly Effect are back, they’re being creative and, as always, they are the perfect example of emotionally haunting inspired music. This tour is not just about the world that’s on fire. It’s about a band that is on fire too.
Live Review By Iain McCallum