nothing, nowhere, sace6, Closure @ Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide 22/4/2026
Joseph Mulherin, intertwines with fans on the barrier as the last notes of Hammer reverberate across the room. Celebrating ten years of his project nothing, nowhere, Adelaide has brought the voice to match his emotion, creating a cacophony of spine-tingling moments.
nothing, nowhere have always been an entity, a sensation even, of melding together different styles of music to create the sounds that convey an emotion. On their celebration tour of Australia, they have brought students of that alchemy in sace6 and Closure, and it’s the latter who open.
Hailing from Sydney, Closure do what openers should do best; blow the cobwebs off, turn the engines on and make sure everything is humming along nicely. Vocalist Lucy May high kicks around the stage; energised and vibrant. The visual colour contrast of May in red with the band in black matching the music’s content of passion, obsession and anger. New EP Sweet Suffering is the main player this
evening with Echoes Of You, Glare and Hindsight performed like shots out of a cannon.
LA’s sace6 come in dynamic. The drums sound huge and in guitarist Noah Thomas they have the ultimate hype man which creates a sonic and visual cognitive dissonance with vocalist sace6’s more ethereal and self-reflective persona.
Whether it’s ego with drops as big as a ten-ton hammer or the grooves of Easy Exit, the bands undeniable sexual chemistry adds an extra layer to the energy. Thomas is manic, directing the crowd to wave, sing, bounce and clap while he himself swings his guitar with the enthusiasm of a kid on Christmas morning on too much red cordial. Meanwhile sace6 extrapolates his emotive poetry from inside, exorcising those demons. Even when throwing the microphone to the crowd to sing, sace6’s investment is absolute.
With new album brutalist out on May 8, songs from the album are played, whether its covert or perfidy, the crowd lap it up, promising that the when that album drops, it will be devoured voraciously by Australian audiences.
nothing, nowhere appear without fanfare and to be frank, they don’t need to. Opening with Cardinal In The Crossfire and nightmare, the crowd are ready. The music hard and powerful, Mulherin does laps of the stage and the audience become the de facto backing singers, the intensity papabile in the room. nothing, nowhere have always flipped genres and starting with heavier tracks allows the crowd to breathe for when the love or chemistry lands before the almost offensive desire to form a pit in lights (4444) takes over the audience, echoing the chorus.
People have climbed onto vantage points to get a better view as Mulherin rips the demon out of him during Clarity In Kerosene and Pieces Of You, the room getting so hot, I dash out for two pints of water to rehydrate. Mulherin states that Adelaide has the best singers of tour, but we already knew that, before sace6 collaborates on Hopes Up as the crowd roar before Nevermore finishes the set showing Mulherin’s raps skills and the bands crushing bottom end.
The crowd chant for one more song, Mulherin says ‘how about two?’ and an angry Godzilla sized and sounding All Star with Noah from sace6 lending his growls, whips the crowd up even further before the cracking Hammer ends it all, complete with soaring guitars solos and crowd hugs.
The contrast of the softness, the heavy, the serene and the manic has been on display from all three bands on the bill, perfectly encapsulating what life is like today. It’s all those emotions and more and this bill is the soundtrack to it as we know it.
Live Review By Iain McCallum