Live Review: Norma Jean, Vanna, A Secret Death, Safe Hands, Hand Of The Architect

7 May 2013 | 9:00 pm | Tom Hersey

After a night of top-notch bands there’s little suspicion as to why these guys are headlining. Now they just need to not leave it so long to get back here.

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It's been a while between beers with metalcore bruisers Norma Jean, and upon entering The Hi-Fi it's hard to stay mad at them for not coming over sooner.

Gold Coast outfit Hand Of The Architect have the honour of kicking off the proceedings; the stages these guys have shared is really starting to pay dividends. The material from their EP Lost Things sounds very cohesive and punchy. 

Newcastle noise-punk kids Safe Hands take over, and manage to sound like anything but their secure moniker. They capture the jittery, volatile energy of full-length Montenegro and are definitely a band to watch.

Everyone in The Hi-Fi seems beyond stoked that Gold Coast's A Secret Death have gotten back together to play this tour. Watching the five-piece tonight, this reviewer is transported back to the sweaty shows at venues that don't exist any more, like 299, where the band's inventive take on heavy music would floor an entire audience. A Secret Death very much have that same effect on tonight's crowd.

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It's a tough spot to be sandwiched between hometown heroes and headliners, but Americans Vanna don't seem too fazed. The five-piece take over the stage with a bluster matched by their abrasive brand of post-hardcore. With a tight-as-hell rhythm section holding the band together and preventing a descent into chaos, the tunes from the band's newest record, The Few And The Far Between, really do a good job of selling the record. It's just a shame so many people seem to use their set as an opportunity to sort out beer and merch before the headliners.

Norma Jean, along with a very small crop of bands, do metalcore right. Like contemporaries and one-time Australian tour buddies Every Time I Die, their music showcases an inventiveness that separates them from the generic chug-n-mosh bullshit perpetrated by a lot of the bands kicking around the scene today. Tonight, in cuts like Face:Face and Memphis Will Be Laid To Waste from the band's 2002 Bless The Matyr And Kiss The Child record, the band proves why they're a cut above the rest. As they work through an even selection of cuts from their five album discography, they showcase a sound that encompasses the fragile intensity of the best hardcore and thrash metal's tricky riffery. Norma Jean's set is noisy, it's fast and it's pretty bloody powerful. After a night of top-notch bands there's little suspicion as to why these guys are headlining. Now they just need to not leave it so long to get back here.