Live Review: Terror, Letlive., Your Demise

Not a lot of gigs make you fearful for your safety, but lining up out front of the Tempo, you had to imagine that leaving with a busted face was a very real possibility considering the Sidewave bill assembled. Arms are already swinging furiously to Your Demise when we enter, the Brits making the most of their final-ever Brisbane show, attacking their songs with an almost sadistic smirk, savouring the most of the punishment taking place in the front rows. Ed 'The Man' McRae shares the mic around for plenty of screamalong choruses, while the rhythms of James Tailby make sure the show is driven into the memory banks of the believers out saying their last goodbyes.

The room is quickly swollen in anticipation for Letlive., who are arguably the main drawcard here tonight even though their name isn't sitting atop the bill. The LA five-piece warriors are incessant from the first notes, playing a spasmodic brand of post-hardcore that snaps and turns at breakneck speed, in line with the movements of volatile frontman Jason Aalon Butler. He leads the troops through Banshee (Ghost Fame) and H. Ledger before mounting the top of the speakers for The Sick, Sick, 6.8 Billion, the stack looking like it could topple at any second. Butler talks tortured tales of death and demise on the streets of Los Angeles in between blasts of fury, the guitar interplay of Jean Francisco Nascimento and Jeff Sahyoun sounding especially raw and powerful in the Tempo main room. But then after Muther, Empty Elvis and Younger, Butler takes objection to security's handling of punters cartwheeling over the front barrier and goes at one of the guards with flying stomp kicks from the stage, 27 Club abruptly coming to an end as his bandmates drag the bearded frontman away while he continues spraying a torrent of abuse; the band then conclude with a rapid-fire Renegade 86' before Butler rips his shirt off and disappears out through the smoking area.

Although still healthy, the crowd has clearly thinned out by the time Terror appear for their headline set, and immediately the clinical brutality of these hardcore masters seems by the numbers when weighted against the set before it. That's not to say Scott Vogel isn't as batshit crazy as ever out the front, launching himself into the pit on numerous occasions, and the rest of the units aren't absolutely owning tracks like Overcome, Hell And Back and Always The Hard Way; there just isn't anything that's really fresh or shocking, with the legends being upstaged tonight by apprentices that are taking their formula and flipping it completely upside-down.