Polaris, Ocean Grove, Inertia @ Bridgeway Hotel, Pooraka SA 20/7/2024
Some shows make you consider buying a ticket and going. Others have you scrambling online on the day of sale. Then there are Polaris shows. Shows you’d sell body parts on the dark web to get entry into.
Why is that?
Anyone who has seen them before will tell you why the keep coming back. It’s the wall of noise that makes venues reverberate like Godzilla is crashing through, the floor bounce like a jumping castle and sweat profusely like a sauna.
Then there’s also the music. Dynamic, effervescent and lyrically uncovering what we all have inside that makes it relatable to our core.
The line up is pretty stacked too. Something admitted by bands across the globe is how supportive Australian bands are one another and tonight Inertia and everyone’s favourite multi flavoured ice cream Ocean Grove are here too. That sense of camaraderie and togetherness becomes prevalent as the night’s unexpected events unfold. More of that later.
Inertia were in Adelaide only a few weeks back with Dayseeker. That night, with vocalist Julian down due to illness, saw the band perform admirably in unique circumstances. Tonight, will a full squad to choose from, they go hard from the off.
The venue is already bursting to its seams, as vocalist Julian Latouche makes up for lost time with smooth vocals contrasting with screams. The band for their part crush. With a focal, or is that vocal, point, they hit that bottom that shakes you from underneath while being blasted in the face by sonic force.
Everyone needs to see Ocean Grove at least once in their life. Colourful, rampant, and shape shifting, they are half hour of pure fun.
They start at a rapid rate of knots and don’t let up. Ask For The Anthem, My Disaster and Sunny book end and flavour a show that has vocalist Dale Tanner attempts what seems like seventy-six high jump records and run fourteen marathons all while getting a crowd worked up and sweaty.
The band orchestrate wall of deaths, circle pits, as walking sticks are waved in the air and get up local fan Little Rocka who shows everyone how it’s done. Ocean Grove, never a dull moment, always a great show.
Which brings us to Polaris, and the nights extraordinary circumstances that brought all together. The Sydneysiders for their part, just keep getting better. They know how to work a crowd, they have a catalogue that demands full buy in and an audience that is uninhibited in its ferocity for the music.
Opening with The Crossfire and All Of This Is Fleeting, it’s clear everyone is invested with all their worth. The wall of death moment causes literal carnage and the show is stopped for around an hour to assist to a medical emergency.
Vocalist Jamie Hails makes his way into the crowd to make sure everyone is ok. The audience, on a Saturday night and many drinks down are respectfully behaved. The gravity of the situation more important. Later, when the band resume, Hails comments on the audience’s exemplary connections during this and the sense of togetherness we all have.
After the hour delay, a quick venue wide rendition of happy birthday for drummer Daniel, sees Ocean Grove present a birthday cake and then the band lock straight back in on Hypermania and Remedy to ignite the powder keg.
Hails works each corner of the stage, while Windwaker’s guitarist Jesse Crofts absolutely slays it with some killer solo work throughout. This is a band ripped, shredded and imposing.
The audience continues to crowd surf, circle pits and wall of deaths commonplace and all to a backdrop of Nightmare and Dissipate. The audience beginning to resemble Deadites from Evil Dead, such is the sweat expelled.
With the nights unexpected events taking place, Polaris set list was shortened, however no less potent. Right now, the years of touring, hard work and commitment to what they do through adversity, has created a pit bull of a band live. Muscular, snarling, powerful, loyal. They’ve never let the fans down, and in turn, the fans don’t let them down. Extraordinary show in extraordinary circumstances.
Live Review By Iain McCallum