Of Mice & Men, Crystal Lake @ Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide 7/5/2026
Aaron Pauly smiles, in shades and swinging mics, over the audience. Phil Manansala has won the crowd over wearing a Adelaide 36ers basketball top before he even played a note. Drummer Valentino Arteaga orchestrating the crowd from behind a giant kit. Alan Ashby pouring more fuel onto a fire that has burnt brightly all night, reaching explosive proportions. Of Mice & Men came in, dealt the cards needed and won.
Back in Australia on the Another Miracle tour, the Californian quartet are such a finely tuned outfit, that their set isn’t just a series of bangers, they are magic that ebbs and flows, pushing and prodding at the right moments for maximum effect.
Adding to glory of the evening is Japan’s monstrous Crystal Lake and it is the with the band from the land of rising sun we start.
I don’t know how to describe that feeling you get when a groove or breakdown is so thunderous, parts of your body shake you didn’t know existed, and it wasn’t unpleasant either. The energy, the ferocity, the sheer weight of power in the bands songs and performance was extraordinary.
They came in bouncing, explained what was going to happen – lots of moshing, circle pits, you know the deal – and then bludgeoned the audience with music that that sounded like the apocalypse had its own soundtrack that is alarmingly catchy and colossal all at once.
Six Feet Under and The Weight Of Sound amongst the attack of songs that had the room spinning, the surfers riding the waves and the less chaotic, a chance to get the camera lights out and wave hands. They never fail to generate a buzz, and by the time Crystal Lake finished, they place sounded like a beehive.
Which gave Of Mice & Men a challenge to overcome however you don’t do this malarky for seventeen years without knowing a trick or two. Opening with Another Miracle and Feels Like Forever, the band lock in, and present the deal that they will go hard, the crowd fuel the energy in pushing the band to go harder and so forth. Everyone is on board, the crowd sing and we are off.
Of Mice & Men are a bigger band than this venue, so getting this close to an outfit that bristles with enthusiasm is the stardust we are often treated to in Adelaide those on the east coast don’t often get. Aaron Pauly, is the clown prince, powerful vocals with a mischievous streak and he combines with the audience to make this seem so smooth.
You Make Me Sick hammers hard with Arteaga’s drums vibrating the ear drums that continue in Obsolete before slower moments are taken in Flowers. A circle pit forms in anticipation a good thirty seconds before O.G. Loko unleashes like a volcano erupting.
A deafening chant for one more song encore is greeted with two as Bones Exposed and Second & Sebring brings the fantasy of tonight to a close in a blur of reverberating drums, mic swings and a floor that is somehow still intact after the place moves to beat of the music.
The East Coast may have the bigger venues for the band however I challenge them to create the magic Adelaide did with the line up through our intimate setting. Over To You.
Live Review By Iain McCallum