Live Review: Houve VS Hurricane, Confession, In Hearts Wake, Foxes

14 August 2012 | 3:14 pm | Kane Sutton

There was certainly an air of anticipation around the entrance to Amps, made obvious by a line of fans that stretched down the entire alleyway before the doors had even opened. Everybody knew their cash would be going to good cause, and Foxes proved that from the second they began playing. Each man in the quintet complemented each other extremely well, resulting in a wonderfully heaving, frenzied foundation for lead vocalist Alex Shom to scream his emotional ramblings over.

Byron Bay's In Hearts Wake graced the stage soon after, following Foxes' melodic element and really pushing the crowd to get moving. They achieved this quite easily, each member of the band performing a half-run/half jump exercise on stage while playing their instruments. Performing their set in a very clean and well-rehearsed manner, it was great to see the crowd become more vocal too, with punters at the front really getting into the slam-dancing.

Next band up was Confession, and it was easy to sense a bit of apprehension and curiosity amongst the crowd, given the only member of the band they were familiar with was the vocalist, Michael Crafter. They opened with the heaviest set of the evening, setting themselves apart from the bands that had already played. Despite the membership having changed drastically, the band performed with enormous energy and purpose, and the growing crowd enjoyed every minute of it.

Expectations were certainly high amongst the contingent of fans crowding the stage, most of whom presumably hadn't seen House Vs. Hurricane since before their recent jaunt to the US to record Crooked Teeth. They immediately took control from the word go, with newly recruited lead vocalist Dan Casey letting the crowd know that this is a new era for the band. Opening in appropriate fashion with the first track off their latest album, they had the crowd in the palm of their hand, growling out the order to “get your hands up” during 40 Deep. The energy grew as the set continued, with the diehard fans at the front becoming more and more animated, right up until their final encore song when the band demanded stage dives from the crowd members, which they took with full enthusiasm, right up until the last note. The buzz of excitement hung in the air long after the stage departure of HvH in what was a fantastic night for Australian hardcore talent.

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