Dayseeker, Landon Tewers, Reliqa, Inertia @ Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide 9/7/2024
The stripped back beauty of live music, no matter the genre, is the moment magic dust descends on a show that will go down in the history books. Sometimes it’s glorious, sometimes it’s anarchy, sometimes it’s triumph in adversity. Tonight, as Dayseeker continue the maiden headline tour of Australia, it’s a little from all columns.
Round 1 goes to Sydney’s Inertia. An undeniably heavy metalcore band that brings actual grooves to their music, they come up one man short as vocalist Lee recovers from laryngitis. That doesn’t stop them and the remaining three piece, having already explained the situation, thrust their powerful musical might onto the audience.
Initially using vocal tracks, a guest two song set featuring Daniel Cullen-Richard’s from Adelaide’s own enigmatic Alt. adds a healthy dose of substance as the band rip through the remainder of their set and the epic Too Far Gone finishes them off. They may feel that being a man down made them lightweight, however the performance was actually crushing.
Round 2 is Reliqa’s turn, who were in Adelaide only a few weeks ago however any chance to hear tracks from their amazing debut album Secrets Of Theo Future needs to be engaged. Opening with Cave, the groove swings and sways like a marionette.
Killstar (The Cold World) showcases how hard they go in full prog mode. Brandon’s guitar work intricate, Mile’s bass rumbling and Pym’s vocal and moves enchanting. Dying Light is an extraordinary weighty piece of metal to chew on before the night is cut short tragically. However, the Adelaide crowd was mesmerised by the performance. Hopefully they will be back soon.
Round 3 is The Plot In You’s genius front man Landon Tewers who brings the energy down, wraps it up tightly and then starts to use it to his advantage of angst, industrial, grunge poetry.
Every track is lovingly performed as it’s the last time it will, Tewers vocals hauntingly soulful and his band subtle yet effective.
As Tewers pours his heart into the music, the audience absorb the energy back in a serene way of happiness that is entirely fulfilling.
Final round is Californians Dayseeker who enter the stage, suited up, glitter shirted like a Vegas cabaret band. A Cabaret band that will blow your face off once the opening sounds of Gates Of Ivory hit mind you.
Dreamstate has the crowd moving like a lava lamp as the bands emotive and catchy lines are sung back.
Rory Rodriguez is not a typical frontman. He exudes calmness, composure while he vocally pierces the sonic barrier.
The band and crowd are interlocked that magic happens, a glitch in the matrix if you will, when the song switches to black and white before coming back in technicolor.
Cameras are out for Burial Plot and the 80’s rom com soundtrack worthy Homesick keeps the good vibes spreading all around.
Rodriguez leads the crowd in arm waving during Without Me and that drum swing from Crying While You’re Dancing is enormous.
After an achingly beautiful Paper Heart, the band stop the show as a crowd member passes out – another weirdly unique event to take place during tonight’s gig – in front of them. The crowd and venue act quickly.
A lot of recent Dayseeker work has been in relation to Rodriguez father passing away and this is touched on before Drunk, an expelling of hurt, love and emotion right there on stage.
The final run features an audience lead Sleeptalk, a solo Parallel and then a fire inducing Neon Grace which, while the crowds part was impressive, that scream from Rodriguez raised hair.
Without the incidents, this was four bands on a killer line up with killer tunes putting on a killer show. The fact three of them had incidents and yet each one of them handled them calmly, with class and delivered noteworthy performances only adds to the magic of live music. You really need to be there to feel it. Tonight was a triumph all around.
Live Review By Iain McCallum