Avatar @ Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide 26/8/2026
The circus had well and truly come to town…
Bring your torches. Bring your madness. Bring your soul laid bare.
Adelaide was the first stop on Avatar’s Australian tour with this show living up to all the hype and even the endorsement from Metallica was confirmed by “raising the bar” and “creating a spectacle” and keeping fans “on their toes”. The vibe in Lion Arts Factory was electric in anticipation of what was Avatar’s first show in Adelaide. Hats off also for not leaving us out when so many do. For the uninitiated they have been touted, rightly or wrongly, as ‘circus metal’ bringing plenty of flair and theatrics to the performance. They don’t just play their songs, they put on a show. It was entertaining and one of those shows that exceeded my expectation being one of those going in completely uninitiated.
Memorable? Very much so…
Their tenth album released last year Don’t Go In To The Forest set the scene and that ultimate temptation to find out more. Right from the outset once the room darkened the audience were captivated and hooked in to what was about to unfold. Avatar emerged from the shadows one by one with hooded ring master Johannes Eckerström leading the way with a lit lantern launching in to C. aptain Goat. Let the mayhem begin! It becomes very clear that when you’re this good that you don’t need a support act, so you better be on time. From there it was Avatar in full flight knocking over The Eagle Has Landed and then The Eagle Has Landed.
Ring master extraordinaire Johannes Eckerström literally had this crowd hanging off every word saying “this is the start of a beautiful friendship, I remember our first show in Copenhagen, it didn’t look like this.” Adding that “this is incredible, you make me feel good, let’s play metal and bang your head.” That mantra continued through In Your Airwaves and Bloody Angel. What is great to see is this band left nothing to spare giving everything to their performance with that crowd energy stoking the fire. With so much going on its hard to know what’s coming or if you look away what will you miss. If they were giving out an award for the front man of all front men Johannes Eckerström would certainly be a contender. Loads of swagger, loads of hutzpah and plenty of charm to keep this Adelaide crowd smiling.
Death and Glitz and The Dirt I’m Buried In are absolutely winners not withstanding the powerful punch that Colossus packs. Eckerström would occasionally drink from what looked like a Jerry Can minus the flames. With a teaser of iconic Aussie anthem Waltzing Matilda with Eckerström promising to learn the second half for next time saying to the Adelaide faithful “to know you is to love you” speaking of his love for city having been to the Botanical Gardens and seeing flying foxes the day before but this show we are “the main dish” and this is what it’s all about. Getting out the “piano jacket” it was the impressive Howling At Waves lead by Eckerström on piano showing another side to the band.
Whilst the focus might have been Eckerström the rest of the band Jonas “Kungen” Jarlsby (guitar), John Alfredsson (drums), Tim Öhrström (guitar) and Henrik Sandelin (bass) are all important cogs in the circus spirit of Avatar. The world live premiere of Crying Fire was awesome and a nice coup for Adelaide to hear it live here first. With the allegiance of the Avatar family pledged it seemed fitting to finish the main set on Tonight We Must Be Warriors.
Returning for an encore which had just as much firepower with Don’t Go in the Forest prompted a response straight after with Eckerström saying “what a wonderful evening in Adelaide.” Eckerström also said “I want to go on but we won’t” [insert boos] jokingly replying “boo yourself you ungrateful shits!” Smells Like a Freakshow and Hail the Apocalypse wrapped up an awesome show leaving Adelaide with the message “We are Avatar! It’s love at first sight, we shall return, be good to yourself and take care of each other.”
Live Review By Rob Lyon