Speed, High Vis, Pain Of Truth, Fuse, Winnerz Circle @ UniBar, Adelaide 31/8/2024
A tree covered, magically lit courtyard, full of song and dance, merriment and ales being consumed is not the setting you would imagine a hardcore show to thrive. Yet this is Adelaide, and this is how they do it.
UniBar is the setting, and despite the briskness of a cold winters night, there is enough heat transferring within stage to audience, that you barely notice when the wind picks up.
The show itself is part of Sydney hardcore band Speed debut album tour for Only One Mode and while they bring with them a smorgasbord of the worlds finest up and coming talent within that genre, they are also donating $10,000 from the profits to WAGEC : Women’s and Children’s Emergency Centre and a further $10,000 to Merciful Group who support Palestinian refugees in Australia.
Opening is local band Winnerz Circle who they themselves have a diehard following that will run though brick walls for them. It shows too and a hefty crowd are involved early. The pit is warming up nicely as the band ignite this passion with tracks such as Nuthin’ 2 Lose and Play2win which mix the upbeat two step hardcore with heavy crushing get-outta-the-way or your pint gets spilled riffs.
With a five band bill there isn’t much turnaround time before the next one is up and it’s Singapore’s Fuse who, like most of us, love a riff. They’ve got plenty too. A mixture of old school New York hardcore like Cro-Mags with a modern groove, it doesn’t take long for them to win over an audience that a first seems to say ‘impress us’. Well they do. New track War sits well with older ones like Off The Leash and by the time the band finish, they have created a buzz from an audience that enjoyed the punk anarchy of their set.
Americans Pain Of Truth intro tape implores everyone to ‘get ready to rumble’ and absolute chaotic scenes ensue. A crowd that has already been amped up is now match ready and prepare for battle in the circle.
This has everything you expect from a hardcore show. Vocalist Michael Smith is often jumping and forward rolling into the pit, sharing his microphone with the audience and there is about a dozen people side of stage slowly encroaching. Songs like Not Through Blood and Pain Of Truth are executed with such ferocity that the monitors and lights are literally shaking on stage. This is not for the faint hearted.
The UK’s High-Vis bring a different energy, a different flavour to tonight’s palette if you will. More of an angry Stone Roses – yes, even more than Oasis – their music is full of melody, harmony and dare I say it, lushness. That’s not to say that Graham Sayle and the lads don’t throw-down, as they attack those moments like a rabid pit bull. With a set list heavily weighted off albums Blending and No Sense No Feeling the lighter moments give you a breather before the dynamic change brings the heavy. Much like tonight and they are a delightful contrast.
Flute players in metal has always been the domain of 70’s prog band Jetbro Tull not hardcore extremists such as Speed yet here it is happening in front of me. A year that started at Knotfest, had an album land and now this headline tour of Australia, Speed are doing what their moniker claims and crushing everything quickly.
The energy, vibrancy, the togetherness hits you in the chest. Yes the singer takes his shirt off – despite the dropping temperatures- and yes it seems like 87,000 people are on the stage, yet they are compulsive viewing. Everyone is compacted in towards the stage, chairs, tables – anything – is being used as a vantage point to watch this.
This mass of bodies fuels the pit that does what pits do but on a spin cycle. It’s frantic, it bounces, it pushes and pulls and the band, led by singer Jem Siow mixing that manically and gloriously.
No Love But For Our Own and Send Them 2 Sydney are among highlights in a set that is blinding. It’s obvious why this band has ripped through this year as audience and band become one. They are fast, they are heavy, they create harmony in an area that to an outsider looks like destruction. That is an impressive feat and one Speed will continue to thrive in. Great night, great line up.
Live Review By Iain McCallum