Ocean Sleeper, Point North, Zero 9:36, Heists @ The Gov, Adelaide 31/5/2025
The back screen rolls the end credits of what looks like a buddy movie, a movie of friends over coming obstacles to success. A movie that succeeds over those obstacles by being purely Independent. In content, in style and in delivery.
It isn’t a movie though, it’s a rock show and the artists are Ocean Sleeper all the way from Gippsland in Country Victoria, yet the story of struggle, sacrifice and success remains the same.
A sold-out tour of Australia of a thousand capacity plus sized venues is quite an achievement. When that band is independent, therefore doing it all themselves – touring, promotion, merchandise just to name a few aspects- it makes that achievement all the greater.
The line up is an awesome foursome of mutually like-minded entities. Fellow Aussies Heists, and overseas imports Zero 9:36 and Point North, all beat the same path Ocean Sleeper do, inspiring, and showing in the cutthroat world of the music business, it can be done.
Heists, from Sydney, are straight in with the bombtracks. It’s all heavy and grooves with vocalist Chris Zagas claiming they are the heaviest band of the night, and he’s arguably right. In what is their biggest Adelaide crowd to date, the understandably excited band replicates that energy into a fusion of hardcore, hip hop and metal that has a circle pit from the very first song and doesn’t relent. A testament to the bands work appreciated by South Australians.
The overseas crew are also fiercely independent and Zero 9:36, a three piece from across America, attack the stage like a coming-of-age youngster claiming a title. That title could well be the soon to be departing hardcore masters Stray From The Path’s such is the ferocity, the cunning and wry subtlety of the music.
When they need to crush, they do such as the riveting The End however that intensity can be matched with the more sensitive ‘I Felt It All’ as they show a melodic ascension that outstrips a sub genre label.
Californians Point North are a different entity again, more pop punk and a different sub section of the audience gravitate towards them from the previous bands. People are sitting on shoulders, others climbing the poles, some on chairs, all wanting to get a decent vantage point to see a band that brings the emo to the nights sound.
The best way to describe the bands impact on the crowd was when I ventured to get another beer on the other side of the room, I couldn’t. The pit had pushed back and was continuous like a dog with the zoomies that made it near impossible to cross for around ten minutes. That’s called a successful show.
For Ocean Sleeper, the sold-out signs are validation they are on the right path to artistic freedom. An hour of high-octane anthems ignites when sparked with heavy breaks awaits and they deliver.
Light In My Dark, Your Love I’ll Never Need and Sleepless standouts in a show that doesn’t have any points it’s not standing out. Vocalist Karl Spiessl is hyperactive like a child on Christmas morning while the band rip the wrapping paper off.
Musically you can see why they are killing it, big choruses you can sing, chunky riffs and a delightful mix of clean and dirty vocals. Theatrically too, The Gov’s stage doesn’t lend itself to expressionism however the band make it work, every inch being sweated on.
As the band finish with Never The One and those end credits roll, the vehemence of the song releasing into the night, an epic event has finished. A production untainted. A show that when creators are allowed to create with freedom sparkled. Those boys from the country did good, now it’s onto America and show them how it’s done.
Live Review By Iain McCallum