The Butterfly Effect, Wayside @ Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide 23/2/2024
The Butterfly Effect began their latest venture here in Adelaide at Froth & Fury before announcing the Begins Here tour which finishes, yes you guessed it, here in Adelaide four months later.
Begins Here is the twentieth anniversary of the bands iconic debut album, played in it entirety from start to finish in luxuriously extravagant fashion. A tour that took them the length and breadth of our great southern land ends in the town where it started and the packed Hindley Street Music Hall is thirsty for more.
Opening is Melbourne’s Wayside who blend soft melodic sounds with potent content. Asymmetry is an ethereal shoe gazer while Half Nelson shows the bands heavier side, the switch from melancholy to heavy a perfect appetiser to the evenings main course.
With a video montage of 2003 news headlines appearing on the screen – 2004 may have gotten big cheer in Adelaide at the AFL segment lads – the lights are dimmed, a cellist appears and the mood is set.
Playing the album Begins Here in order, Intro starts, the soft sounds underpinned by the heavy deep cello before vocalist Clint Boge appears in front of screen, silhouetted, side view to sing Perception Twin and Consequence.
The crowd are rare form all night, whether it’s during Crave, the acapellla and haunting Beautiful Mine or taking over during Always and the band visibly feed off the energy. The noise making the hair on your arms stand to attention.
Kurt Goedhart hits and raises his guitar around his head for feedback, bassist Glenn Esmond stomps his way around the stage, rocking with the cellist and crowd in equal measure. Boge walks along the barrier shaking hands and hugging each fan there. The band clearly enjoying what is quickly becoming a special evening.
After the album is complete, the band come back out, still drenched in sweat, and throw 4 more songs down, including a serene Gone and a raucous Window And The Watcher before departing us with news that they will be back in 2026 with Imago tour then playing Reach from said album to close out.
TheButterfly Effect are one of Australia’s more unique bands, you never really know what’s going to happen with them off stage. On stage though, nights like tonight are a reminder of just how imperious and touching their music is. It all starts with Begins Here.
Live Review By Iain McCallum