Live Review: Sick Of It All - Amplifier

Although Perth's Negative Reinforcement acted as if they had better places to be, their vocalist opening the set by coughing into the microphone and telling the audience to kiss his “lizard”, it was clear that they were honoured to be opening for such iconic acts. The ambient noise that replaced crowd interaction, whilst appropriate to their music, rendered their performance somewhat inadequate in setting the scene for the two main attractions.

This became apparent when New York hardcore legends Agnostic Front hit the stage and wasted no time in getting involved with the punters up front. Fans were fuelled by the band's energy, who in turn was feeding off the crowd's. As things heated up, frontman Roger Miret urged eager fans to join them on stage during songs, which in theory was a great idea but it wasn't until it came time for them to vacate the stage that the diluted crowd capacity up front wasn't a stage diving problem zone. For a band whose members are almost in their 50s, Agnostic Front pull off an impressive live show, putting the energy of so many others to shame. This was the last show of what had been an eventful tour for the band – Miret saving a child from being hit by a car in Victoria a couple of days earlier – and they showed no signs of wear and tear.

Much like the openers, honoured to be playing with hardcore legends, Sick Of It All were in a similar boat. Having cited Agnostic Front as one of the reasons they're playing hardcore, it's no surprise they strolled onto the stage carrying smiles. It wasn't long before the smallish stage they were running around on transformed into somewhat of a cage, restricting their energy like a bird unable to fully stretch its wings. Agnostic Front guitarist Joseph James made a vocal cameo on Rat Pack before it was the crowd's turn to raise their voices. Vocalist Lou Koller split the room into two sections, giving each a line to sing. “That was real shit, but let's do it anyway,” laughed Koller after a quick rehearsal and they kicked off Die Alone. The lack of enthusiasm was quickly rectified during the actual song. No Sick Of It All set would be complete without a wall of death, so before bidding farewell with Step Down, they separated the crowd into two and had them charge into one another when Scratch The Surface began. After two sets from New York's finest, it was clear that veteran hardcore bands shred all over their predecessors and have something that not many others can offer.