The Butterfly Effect @ Metropolis Fremantle
w/ Hammers, These Four Walls
Saturday, August 24, 2019
Anniversary/reunion tours seem to be the order of the day, and according to the packed out crowd watching The Butterfly Effect on Saturday, this is a very good thing. The chance to relive those teenage gig memories and mosh like your bones don’t ache 90% of the time, and be amazed as every word of a song you may not have heard for nearly twenty years comes back to you is actually the best.
Kicking things off were These Four Walls, another Brissy based band (originally from NZ). If we thought we were stepping back in time, it was partly thanks to these dudes who make music nostalgic for the early 2000s. It seems like the brand of rock and metal popular during that era is coming back, so if you fancy it, check out their new single Bravery. Live, the band is very tight, and their guitarist can certainly shred.
Next on was Hammers. Wielding the mic in his hand, the frontman strutted on stage and announced with the most ocker accent ever; “it’s a deadest fucking pleasure to be here.” Hammers had some pub band vibes and a fair amount of posturing, but noodled through a genre-straddling set of hard rock songs embedded with heavy grooves, at moments even recalling RATM with their rap metal (who, after a bit of research, it turns out they cite as an influence). They left the crowd divided, but it was their more stoner rock tracks that hit the spot for this reviewer.
The venue was completely full; even the top balconies were heaving and amongst all the band tees spotted in the crowd was a woman whose face was painted with The Butterfly Effect logo! This is a group who maintain serious levels of fandom. The spotlights drew up, smoke swirled across the stage, The Butterfly Effect walked on, and the opening chords of Filling Silence rang out to massive cheers. It was the ideal opener to demonstrate those inimitable vocals of lead singer Clint Boge, who recently returned to the band. No matter your taste in music, his voice is undeniably powerful. The opening riff of second song Crave whipped the crowd into a frenzy. It remains one of the best tracks to scream along to, and scream along everyone did.
In fact, most of the set was a singalong, particularly up the front where the jostling turned into a full-blown mosh pit, crowd surfing included. On stage the theatrics were also in full swing. The band was faultless, and Boge’s showmanship was second to none. Back-lit for the majority of the songs, they were transformed into writhing shadows. It looked slightly sinister and 100% perfect for their emotion-fueled metal.
The setlist had choice cuts from each of the group’s three albums, traversing from the melodic, like Final Conversation to the straight-up heavy like A Slow Descent. Other highlights included Beautiful Mine, Reach, and, of course, One Second of Insanity which proved to be the climax of the night, at least according to those trying to form a circle pit!
With new material on the way, their new single Unbroken also got a spin. It lacked a bit of the guts of their older stuff, so it will be interesting to see if they pursue that sound. The only complaint was that they didn’t play a single thing from their debut EP. Not even in the encore, and this reviewer’s teenage heart was hanging out for Take It Away or The Cell. That said, it was still amazing to see the band this many years down the track, with so many adoring followers who felt free to kick and punch and scream along like it was 2003 all over again.
SHANNON FOX
Photos by Karen Lowe
