LIVE REVIEW: BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME, Perth, 25 Feb 2016

LIVE REVIEW: BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME, Perth, 25 Feb 2016
Between The Buried And Me with Voyager, Chon – The Rosemount Hotel
Reviewed by Michael Daines
Photography by Stu McKay

The Rosemount Hotel rattled on its foundations on Thursday the 25th of Feb when the iconic Perth music venue hosted some of progressive and heavy music’s finest as Between The Buried And Me embarked on their tour of Australia in the support of their shattering seventh studio album Coma Ecliptic, greeting Perth audiences with instrumental tour mates CHON and local heroes Voyager.

The venue was buzzing with fans rabid with the thought of the night’s proceedings. Voyager took to the stage in a frenzy showing new and old fans alike why they are seen as one of Perth and Australia’s most hard working and enjoyable live bands. Sweeping their way through a 30-minute set, the dual guitar work of Simone Dow and Scott Kay set the pace and drew the audience in. The band has relentlessly been working away in the studio and on stages across the world over the course of the last 18 months and it has been some time since I had the pleasure of catching a show, so tonight was something special. Their hard work always pays off and with members of the audience cheering with delight at such treats as Momentary Lapse of Pain, Lost, Hyperventilating, You The Shallow and The Meaning of I. The band’s most recent single Misery Is Only Company was a personal highlight, and with the band gearing up for more touring in the coming months, fans should keep an eye and ear out for more of these fine people soon.

CHON took to the stage for their first show in Perth and in Australia, and they didn’t disappoint. The technical performance of these four young Americans from San Diego was pretty incredible. It was awesome to see such a welcoming response from the audience as they effortlessly played their way through their 11-song set performing material from their first studio effort Grow. The audience was treated to some of the finest instrumental music and the band – though looking slightly nervous when kicking off their set – worked themselves back into a comfort zone and found the footing that made them such a special thing to witness. With most of the members under the age of 23, the musicianship shows an extreme understanding of technicality and performance. Opening with Story and then shifting into overdrive with tracks such as Across The Spectrum and Perfect Pillow, their set never had a moment where it made you feel distant to the band’s music or performance. These guys will be an interesting band to see develop on the coming years.

After the inevitable wait from one band to another the moment that the entire now-packed venue had been waiting for arrived. Five musicians descended upon the stage and showed Perth why Between The Buried And Me are so loved and are who they are. The conceptual songwriting and sheer brilliance at the mastery of their instruments is on an entire other level. The quality of their use of dynamics, shifting from odd time signatures and measures of time is of no issue for them. This, my friends, is a band who musically will stand the test of time. After releasing Coma Ecliptic it was a wonder for many in the audience how this show was going to play out. When your material spans such a great length of time in not only your career as a band, and with each song so perfectly written and nuanced, what do you treat your audience with? Well, we got the lot!

The band launched into The Coma Machine from the aforementioned 2015 release and that was it, they pulled everyone in and none of us had the chance of leaving until they made the journey end themselves. Vocalist and keyboardist Tommy Rogers is a very engaging frontman: it’s no mean feat trying to entertain a room full of fans and perform on par with your band mates. His voice was incredible despite suffering from being a bit lower in the front of house mix then desired when the band first started. As the rhythm section of Paul Briggs on bass and drummer Blake Richardson pumped a platform of incredible playing the band launched into material from Colors with Foam Born (A) The Backtrack and (B) The Decade of Statues pummelling the entire room. Guitarists Paul Waggoner and Dustie Waring are without a doubt some of the most insanely competent musicians working at the moment. The duo tore from one note onto the next and their guitar work was destructive as the audience got with Telos from The Parallax II: Future Sequence.

This indeed was a special night as Shevanel (Take 2) from 2003’s The Silent Circus, The Ectopic Stroll and Famine Wolf brought us back to current material and the performance of these songs was again mind boggling. Finally though the band reached its finale with Selkies (The Endless Obsession) from Alaska, as the band powered through the seven-minute long masterpiece they brought the show to its conclusion. A real treat to behold, and all I can say is that if you have never given this band a real chance or seen them live, get into it.

Category: Live Reviews, Photo Galleries