Poison The Well, Haywire, Iron Mind, Stressed @ Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide 9/6/2026

The air bristles with anticipation. The venue resembles a Colosseum where gladiators duel. The backdrop is a combustible array of musical talent. Poison The Well’s long-awaited return as conquering warriors surveying the young upstarts before is visually profound. That was the show tonight. Poison The Well headlining a four-band bill of razor sharp, seething and germane performances befitting a cage fight.

Opening was Adelaide’s Stressed, who lock in like assassins hunting the kill. Furious, powerful and heavy. The room opens and begins to resemble Thunderdome from Mad Max 3. Enter if you dare. The bands powerful grooves, display of solidarity with the pit and positively aggressive vocals are the perfect foil to the bedlam below. Vocalist Nicole a tornado across the stage and only gravity stops her from ripping up the ceiling the same way they do the stage.

Iron Mind come in like a muscle car, roaring, burly and menacing. The gladiators armed with riffs, breakdowns and tunes that snap. Vocalist Sam, a demon possessed, leads the pit into battle as the band launch into uncompromising track after track. Raw, degenerate and crushing, Iron Mind’s V8 engine sound rumbles like bliss to the sweat soaked, bloody mosh pit of hardcore kids below. It reminds me of Biohazard before they got all that major record label money. F-U Attitude and vibe spring to mind.

Haywire reputation precedes itself. There have been rumblings about this band for some time and now we get front row seats to the show. The school yard playground fight in the pit becomes a typhoon of bodies slamming as the band start with ‘The Australian National Anthem’ of Will I Ever See You Face Again by The Angels, blissfully unaware that said band are Adelaide’s own. You can see early what mood the band, and therefore crowd, have come in tonight.

Frontman Austin Sparkman is engaging with the audience, acknowledging you won’t get a face punch like Iron Mind however you will get a vocalist who jumps barriers, hands off the microphone to the punters mid-song and praises the security at the venue as the best there is. There’s something about Boston hardcore that is anthemic, working class and real. No gimmicks here, just a vocalist who illuminates like a Union leader on the frontline, and a band that combines the essence of old school British punk with American grit.

The main fight on the card tonight though is Poison The Well. The returning legends watch the vitality of the youngsters and take a more measured yet still clinical approach to slaying the crowd. With a double loaded arsenal of a new album in Peace In Place and a twenty five year anniversary of their debut to unload with, the set list delights and excites.

The drive is heavy; the crowd chanting and the manic souls left in the pit are portraying the cast of characters in Survivor.

The set itself heavily weighs on the debut, so I won’t list each song here, you already know them. What I will do is describe the chills when the opening sounds from those classics perform. Hair on the back on the neck, emotions returning of the core memories those songs give. It’s a beautiful thing to hear them live once again.

Jeffrey Moreira and Rryan Primack control the crowd with the slightest of feints, the raise of inflection in voice and the magic from those fingers on the fretboard. The warriors looking over the carnage below and continuing to smash classic after classic on them like a giant hammer, knowing their return has new challengers to their crown. However, if you come for the King, you better put them down, and despite the ferocity of the supports tonight, Poison The Well still stand imperious, untouched and victorious.

Live Review By Iain McCallum