Lorna Shore, Bodysnatcher, To The Grave @ Hindley Street Music Hall, Adelaide 16/2/2025
In the end, was the chaos worth it? And it was chaos. Bodies flew in all directions, left, right, over the barrier. The pits resembled the coming of the apocalypse, and the sweat washed over everyone.
Lorna Shore were finally in Adelaide, the sold-out signs up months before, at a time when Fringe is on in the city, and on a Sunday night, this was the hottest ticket in town.
The HSMH capacity crowd of near 1800 arrived early, expectant, and fully prepared for anything that may unfold. Positions taken by patrons that were set for the night.
To The Grave opened up to a packed venue. Vocalist Dane Evans arrives in pig mask and boiler suit and growls like a hungry warthog. Opening with Vegan Day Of Violence, everything becomes a chaotic vortex of destruction. Make no mistake, if you’re on the floor, you’re either in the pit or surfing over it. For half hour of brutal music, vocalist Evans incites – in many interesting ways – the anarchy below him and the masses duly oblige.
It makes for a challenge for Americans Bodysnatchers and they, quite frankly, don’t care. They know what they are about, and with tracks to rip open circle pits like Say Goodbye and King Of The Rats, they drop a performance headline worthy.
The metal grooves, it switches between two step and straight-out riffs and in frontman Kyle Medina, they have a man in the pocket shooting three’s all night. Oh and those pits are Duracell powered as they just have not stopped, however with a performance like that, how could they?
However, everyone step aside, it’s Lorna Shore’s night. Much has been written about the band however Will Ramos himself says it best by saying little. He lets the music do the talking.
It’s only a ten song set list but when you have ten-minute songs, full of complexity , time changes, and guttural roars, you just get on with it.
Yes, that pit is still going. Surfers are rolling over the barrier non-stop. Even those dressed as Bananas In Pyjamas join in the wave riding. The anarchy down front somehow dialled to 666.
The light set up is huge, full of flashing and strobes, and the music like an angry King Kong, demolishes everything.
Most of the se tlist comes from Pain Remains, the extraordinary concept album of the tour, including the reviewers dream of Pain Remains 1, Pain Remains 2 and Pain Remains 3 which completes the show in the glory of phone lights illuminating the room.
Before that though, belters such as Of The Abyss and To The Hellfire have the audience fist pumping, chanting and still moshing away in a Herculean effort.
Ramos, stood atop a riser, appears like Caesar overlooking his people. His work rate into his singing, strong and powerful. The band depart, barely having had a breath to take in the mass destruction before it. Bodies lay or seated exhausted. Sweat and possibly other bodily fluids shared. A sea of chaotic devastation within the crowd. Was it worth it? You bet your life it was.
Live Review By Iain McCallum