Gyroscope, Fyre Byrd, Glowing @ Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide 24/10/2019

Maybe it’s the hot weather, maybe it’s Gyroscope’s fan base but tonight’s audience for the Perth headliners resembles a beach in Bali. There are surfer dudes, boys on a football trip, hen parties, hell there is even a sombrero, as the audience squeeze in for the start of the bands 4YRLV tour. Everyone is here to celebrate, and they are doing it the best way they know how.

Opening tonight is Adelaide’s Glowing, whose eccentric style shows through in their music. While it’s easy to pop them in to the alt rock genre, there are influences from modern pop punk to 80’s Cure influenced goth with a dash of surfer rock sprinkled in. It makes for an enjoyable laid-back entry into this evening’s pleasantries.

In what has been a whirlwind twelve months for the band, Fyre Byrd take to stage with their infectious Take Me Out track and grab everyone’s attention. The drums are loud and vibrate the building as seen during Put Me In A Dress when drummer Breeze demands the audience comes closer and they oblige accordingly. Samtre jokes with crowd and leads the guitar charge through tracks such as Fire and new song Breach.

By the time final song Wanna Feel Good is performed the room are dancing and singing along perfectly displaying the bands ability to shake you out of your slumber and get you enjoying life. A triumphant performance, which had the headliners themselves watching from the wings with approval.

Touring 4YRLV, tonight’s show is the first of the tour however it also commences drummer Rob Nassif’s last shows with Gyroscope after a couple of decades pounding the skins. Pounding is apt way to describe the start of the show as the West Australians hit the red button and launch into Don’t Look Now. The rocket fuelled I Still Taste Blood, Doctor Doctor and 4YRLV follow before you’re given a chance to breath.

Guitarist and front man Daniel Sanders utilises the whole stage, and more, climbing onto the railing multiple times, to connect with the crowd.

The place is bouncing for 1981 while Safe Forever has the crowd singing back like a Sunday morning choir. All the band members are charming and effusive with the crowd as Zoran Trivic and Brad Campbell take turns to engage everybody in the room. It enhances the celebratory feeling in the venue.

It is like a greatest hits show as each song is greeted enthusiastically finishing with Fast Girls/ Beds Are Burning, Baby I’m Getting Better and Snakeskin.

This tour may be the end of era for some, however based on the quality of the new music and this performance, it’s the beginning of a new vibrant chapter for the band.

Live Review By Iain McCallum