Hawthorne Heights, Armor For Sleep, Tapestry @ The Gov, Adelaide 24/4/2026
Ohio doesn’t scream musically iconic. Even the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame doesn’t put the state top of people’s travel lists. Yet, one band have made it their mission to make their home state rock as hard as any other and that is Hawthorne Heights, who grace Australia’s equivalent to Ohio, South Australia, in honour of the twenty year anniversary of If Only You Were Lonely.
The album launched this bands, and many other contemporaries, careers, due to its solid songwriting, anthemic choruses and the bands charm. Bringing it in full , entices out the elders, the younglings and all those in between for an evening of memories, fun and song.
Opening the night is Tapestry from Melbourne, whose blend of metal is like waves crashing on the shore at night. Sometimes wild, sometimes clam yet always compelling. Vocalist Tom Devine-Harrison’s vocals bursting out from the cramped stage like a dolphin coming up for air, while the band switch dynamics from smooth to wild throughout, stirring the crowd into movement.
Bringing heat, passion and loud guitars are Armor For Sleep and the Americans, led by Ben Jorgensen, start at rapid pace and don’t let up. Jorgensen, compelling and warm, talks with the crowd throughout about the songs and journey, before the band rip into the big riffs of The Outer Ring, Basement Ghost Singing and the moving The Truth About Heaven. It’s old school emo punk dialled up to ten and the elders approve.
Ohio’s Hawthorne Heights are the main ticket tonight and there’s a reason they are revered as legends in the emo category. They know who they are, and unequivocally deliver on that with an arsenal of a strong catalogue.
Playing the If Only You Were Lonely 2006 album in full, what sounded fresh then has matured into a profound collection of songs played live.
Opening with This Is Who We Are, the band hum nicely , the audience clap and sing, and the portal to 2006 has engulfed us all.
We Are So Last Year follows before the first of vocalist JT Woodruff’s erudite speeches about sharing this moment, protecting and loving yourself and others, is sermoned. It is these moments that you release why this album and band mean so much to so many here tonight. Children as young as six head bang and sing, alongside their parents, the message timeless, the music heavenly and the lineage maintained.
Pens And Needles, Breathing In Sequence and Where Can I Stab Myself In The Ears rip through, and the bands music is so strong their is no need for fancy gimmicks. Woodruff centres everyone and the energy from the crowd, vocal all night, is the fuel for the bands fire.
Decembers gets an airing, emotive and touching, before Woodruff admits no encore, just a selection of the bands blow your eardrums out rockers such as Niki FM, newbie Like A Cardinal and finishing with Ohio Is For Lovers, the anthem of a generation.
Hawthorne Heights delivered tonight. They sounded fantastic, the crowd let go of their constraints, and the energy buzz so prolific it could’ve lit up a city. No one is leaving lonely tonight.
Live Review By Iain McCallum