Live Reviews : Deftones, Karnivool & Voyager @ Festival Hall, Melbourne 11/11/2016

Words: Mitch Alexander

Photos: Ben Gunzburg

(Click here to view the full gallery)

Voyager were my favourite band of the night. I just want to lay that out simply and boldly up top, so you know you should go and check them out. I was a little apprehensive because I was told they were “prog-metal” (and I was also told fairly unequivocally that I would not like them), but boy am I glad my good friend is a fucking idiot. To put it in a phrase, they play djent with clean vocals. But that doesn’t describe how well they play, and how perfectly written every song is, how professionally tight they sound while still delivering an unironically excited show, how absolutely mind-blowingly good they are at their instruments, especially the vocalist. While some of my love might flow from the novelty of discovering brand new music, 12 hours later I am still sure that they played with more conviction and passion than the other two bands. Voyager were hungry for it; they had a palpable drive to be considered a top-tier band, and they didn’t waste the opportunity. I can’t remember the last time I saw an opening band so effectively switch a crowd that initially couldn’t give a fuuuurrrrk about them. The venue was criminally small on attendance for their set, but those late-coming idiots missed out. Voayger are the INXS of djent and god damn it I’m still buzzing about them. As soon as any of my writing starts paying me a livable wage I’ll be buying up a bunch of their merch, so what I mean is someone should buy me some of their merch.

Voyager

Karnivool were up next, but should they have been? I do love me some Karnivool, but after 159 years touring off the back of one and a half good records and an album of Brian Eno covers played through an Axe FX, I’m starting to wonder what their point is. Let’s be clear; you will not find a tighter, better sounding and more consistent Australian band except for maybe Voyager now I think about it. But until they played their “old stuff” I felt like I was watching a youtube stoner compilation of white noise machines for the 7th time in a row. If I was high it might have ruled. But I wasn’t, so it didn’t.
And I’m not a guy who likes old stuff for the sake of liking old stuff. But the difference between Karnivool’s Themata-era tracks (of which they played one) and their newer songs is like the difference between a fine arts undergrad trying acid for the first time and playing with effects pedals and a band knowing what they want to be doing. The old songs had a vision and a purpose that wasn’t diminished by their supposed “simplicity.” The riffs were chunky, the hooks memorable, and the choruses were a Hill Song-esque joy to sing along to. The new shit sounds like a drooling conversation with a day drunk Uncle at a BBQ. But maybe I’m just salty they didn’t play Themata live cause that song used to make me cry when I was 17.

Karnivool

Deftones, as it turns out, were a mix between both Voyager and Karnivool; a weird legacy band that knows what songs butter their bread, but a vital band still producing great work who are unafraid to butcher your favourites.
Chino didn’t perform a single one of “those songs” you love as they were written, instead substituting screams for hoots and weird falsetto yells, changing the vocals phrasing of classic sections, and sometimes just flatout not singing parts. And he’s allowed, because he’s fucking Chino of the Deftones. He can do what he wants. The guy is so cool he could piss his pants and sob into the mic for an hour and I’d still laugh at all his jokes in the hopes he makes me his new best friend.
Their sound was phenomenal, as you would expect to it to be, and all their old singles got the ridiculously wide mosh pit moving in that most entertaining of ways, a bobbing sea of sweaty heads writhing up and down, side to side. Besides a few quirky vocal choices, Chino was definitely having a good night, and the crowd were feeding back into it. I also got to hear Hexagram, which was a nice surprise, albeit one tempered upon the realisation that he’s not actually gonna sing much of it. As if any of this was ever not going to be a good Deftones gig. Also, props to the lighting guy for putting on a stellar show. It made the night fun without overpowering the bands.

Deftones

You know if you like Deftones or not. If you do like Deftones, go find out if you like Voyager as well.

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