Live Review: Empra, Indiago, Escapism, Bulls On Parade - The Colonel Light Hotel

It was always going to prove a difficult task for The Light Hotel to replace the regular success of club night Black Market following the event's move to metal bar Enigma. To combat the loss, The Light has launched their own regular Friday night party: Nevrland. The vibe is different – that's obvious; the significant lack of stretched ears and heavily tattooed revellers for one, coupled with iconic band T-shirts and other random merchandise now displayed like poolroom showpieces. Nevrland has a new target audience and is the ultimate hard rock venue. Escapism was the first band to grace the stage with a sound extremely reminiscent of early Silverchair and Nirvana, with a hint of Audioslave for flavour. This four-piece played an admirable set led by talented vocalist Jessie Francis. This allowed Indiago to continue the good times with a progressive performance, featuring interesting manipulation of ebb and flow between epic ballads and straight-out screaming demonstrating great vocal harmonies and solid drumming. Interestingly, there were moments where the five-piece collapsed into a four-piece as a guitarist left the stage, which was strange to witness. Perhaps additional guitar parts could be implemented to save this seldom awkwardness?
Though normally a full four-piece rock outfit, Melburnians and billed headliners Empra had bassist and drummer travel issues. There was a touch of audience apprehension when Sanny Veloo and Matt Gault took the stage wielding only acoustic guitars; however, this was erased when the pair began to play as if the other 50 per cent of the band were onstage with them. It was evident that something was missing from the performance, yet the acoustic set proved to be a pleasant change from the other acts. Empra also delivered the best moment of the night with an audience call-and-response, “Only love can last forever.”
Closing out the night was Rage Against The Machine cover band Bulls On Parade, and, if you shut your eyes, you would've honestly thought the highly influential Californian quartet had taken the stage. Bulls On Parade have captured Tom Morello's groundbreaking experimental guitar work, solid-as-a-rock rhythm section and unique vocal styles of Zack de la Rocha to perfection, and the rest of the audience were in agreement – The Light Hotel was on fire.
No question, Nevrland made a good impression with its opening night, and will hastily establish itself as another worthy consideration when deciding where to feed an appetite for live music on a Friday night.