Live Reviews : ALL SHALL PERISH (USA), RESIST THE THOUGHT, EMPIRES FALL & I SEEK EXISTENCE @ THE NATIONAL HOTEL, GEELONG, VIC. 30/11/2011

I was feeling some mixed emotions just a couple of hours before the gig started. Considering I only found out the night before the gig that I was interviewing giants of death core All Shall Perish (check it out here), I was in a mad rush over the next day writing questions. Because of that rush, and for the fact that it was only the second video interview I had ever done, I was pretty nervous. However, I was stoked that I was going to this gig, and excited because I knew it was going to be the best gig my hometown of Geelong has had all year.

Not many people were at the doors about 15 minutes before doors opened, and I was starting to get scared that the turnout for this show would be like The Contortionist gig the other weekend. However, by the time the first band came on the venue was nearly half full. Local band I Seek Existence was the only post-hardcore act on the line-up, with the rest of the bands being death metal. ISE were well accepted by the audience, but most of the people that were there for them were the usual people I see at local gigs. The crowd didn’t get moving for them either, or even go up the front.

Next on stage was local band Empires Fall (probably my favourite local band), and I could see the excitement in them opening a show for one of their favourite bands. The crowd was getting bigger at a decent pace, and a few got a gnarly moshpit happening. They opened the set with a brand new song that they hadn’t played before, and kept it going with a few of their hometown fans favourite tracks. Josh’s vocals were sounding better than ever, when he first moved from guitar to vocals, he hadn’t been doing vocals for long and was a bit inexperienced, but now after 7 months he’s an absolute powerhouse.

Rushing through an entertaining sound check was the tour support band, Sydney’s Resist the Thought. Seeing them at that start of this year was a very impressive show, and seeing them again was even better. The band were very energetic on stage but the crowd got boring again, there weren’t as many people inside than there were for Empires Fall, which I was quite shocked about.

The venue was nearly full as All Shall Perish hit the stage, and the crowd went nuts as they played the first song Wage Slaves off their 2006 album “The Price of Existence”. When it comes to all age shows in Geelong, it’s not often that you’ll see the majority of the crowd starting push pits and crowd surfing, it’s usually all hardcore dancing. But this gig was different to most others, there were maybe 1 or 2 hardcore dancers throughout the night, the rest of the people moving around were crammed up front pushing, shoving and headbanging! That’s definitely what I like to see.

After playing Stabbing to Purge Dissimulation and Procession of Ashes, singer Eddie stopped to talk about something that happened in Perth the night before. A 15 year old kid who was a huge fan of ASP asked Eddie about a song off their new album called Divine Illusion, because he believed that the song was anti-Christian, and this kid was a Christian. Eddie addressed the Geelong crowd that the song was in no way anti-Christian, and then dedicated that song to the kid who asked him about it. I don’t remember if it was for this song or another song, but I had my first and only crowd surf for the night. It was fun going across the first 6 rows, until I was thrown off the end of the pack and I thudded on the floor, flat on my back. Ouch!

Going through a couple more songs, ASP decided they’d change things up a little, and play something old that not many people would expect. So they played a slam-death metal tune off their debut album called Herding the Brainwashed. This got a couple of more dancers in the pit; one of them winded me by slamming me in the ribs. ASP asked the crowd who wanted to do a wall of death, and only two people said yes. Pretty poor, but the band still went on with it, organising the first “upside down cross of death”. This is really something that you’ll only understand properly if you were at the show, so let’s just say it was a wall of death with each side running in. I don’t remember what song they did it too, but I remember it being a poor wall of death. More than two people joined it, but there wasn’t much chaos.

Ending the set was the ever-so-epic opener of their 2006 album, Eradication. The crowd took their last chance to chuck a mosh and tear The Nash a new arsehole well, with some dangerous pushpits happening and a lot of crowd surfing. A lot of people hung around after that song finish, so they could collect a pick off super-shredder Francesco, and get a photo with Eddie.
I think it’s safe to say that when I said that this gig was going to be Geelong’s best gig all year, I was damn well right. Even if it wasn’t the best to other people, it was to me. I woke up the next morning bruised, battered, voiceless, and sore all over with violently ringing ears, but it was definitely worth it!