The Amity Affliction
Asking Alexandria / Skyway / Sienna Skies
Big Top, Sydney 9/10/2011
Review: Adrian Kelly | Photos: John Scatfield
Four years ago, The Amity Affliction rolled into Sydney yet again on another of the countless laps of the country they had been cutting since 2004. The band played the Sandringham Hotel in Newtown to 60 or so mildly disinterested folk who were generally more concerned with grabbing another schooner of Coopers than watching any live music.
2011 however, and those 60 Newtown punters could fit in the Amity Affliction’s dressing room at Sydney’s cavernous Big Top. With the sold out signs posted up around the Luna Park entrance, 3300 restless kids filed in for their own taste of fucking the reaper.
Sydney post-hardcore lads Sienna Skies opened proceedings with the packed crowd more than ready to get into some early Sunday night shenanigans, circle pits opening and the invisible ninja dancers having a go at their enemies. These guys have a new record coming soon so keep an ear out, with a performance like tonight’s they may well be following in Amity’s footsteps.
Gold Coast punks Skyway threatened to be obscured by their massive stage banners, pogo jumping and stomping all over the huge Big Top stage as they raced through tracks from their debut album of this year, Finders Keepers. Inciting more circle pits and with a fair few folks singing along, it was great to see a pop-punk band hold their own on such a breakdown heavy bill. A cheeky cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” capped off their set with aplomb, even if guitarist Rohan Chant shredded his hand into a bloody pulp (no really, peep over there on the left).
Wherever British sensations Asking Alexandria go, pandemonium follows, and tonight’s set was no different. Opting for a simplified stage dressing, their seductive cock rock-meets-metalcore tunes had the Sydney crowd eating out of vocalist Danny Worsnop’s palm from the get go. Sure, guitarist Ben Bruce spread flat on the ground, guitar slung over his back and hitting the boards in time with a mosh part that had two guitar parts playing was a little suspect but with huge jams like “The Final Episode” and it’s “oh my god!” refrain, not to mention the audience screaming it back, it seemed like everyone was having a jolly old time.
Any ideas that Asking Alexandria would be a tough act to follow were instantly blown out of the water when The Amity Affliction strode on stage, and ripped straight into “RIP Foghorn”, the capacity crowd going absolutely ape shit. The excitement was evident on the band members faces, vocalist Joel Birch frequently exclaiming his surprise at the reaction between songs, usually with a stunned “holy fuck!” Drawing heavily from Youngbloods, two old crowd favourites were slipped in with “Fruity Lexia” and “Snitches Get Stitches”.
All too soon, the band were wrapping things up with fan favourite “Anchors” (though really, every Amity song is a crowd favourite), the unbelievably vocal crowd singing Ahren Stringer’s chorus lines, before predictably returning for an absolutely wild rendition of “I Hate Hartley”, with Birch throwing himself into the crowd at the first chance he got.
Seems Parkway Drive have a challenger for the throne.
