If your idea of fun is deliciously raucous live music then the Forum was the place to be tonight as the faux stars on the iconic venue’s ceiling aligned as Melbourne’s favourite alt-rockers KINGSWOOD fronted their biggest hometown crowd yet as part of their Microscopic Wars Tour II.
Kicking off this festivity is Brisbane outfit The Belligerents. The quintet delivers a set full of punchy indie/dance offerings including the polished newest single ‘In My Way’ that has been receiving significant Triple J air play, doing their best to tempt early arrivals into a bit of a boogie.
Hot on their heels is local gem Lurch and Chief who know exactly what they are on about. The six-piece band is definitely one to watch as their rocking beats envelop you and set you adrift. The duets, between male and female vocalists Hayden Somerville and Lilibeth Hall, work extremely well, especially during the stirring ‘We Are The Same’, the edgy ‘It’s Easy’ and their on point cover of Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Games’.
The popular brothers-in-beards certainly know how to build anticipation. For a full ten minutes before they are scheduled to appear, music slowly builds throughout the full capacity room, smoke billows from the stage and bright spotlights tease us poor mortals. At promptly 10:25pm the lads walk on stage and are greeted with an ear-splitting reception, and the magic unfurls.
Launching into an opening trifecta of big, loud, beautiful rock they belt out ‘She’s My Baby’, ‘All Too Much’ and ‘Sucker Punch’ with the unrelenting energy their fans have come to expect.
The band, comprised of Fergus Linacre (vocals), Alex Laska (guitar), Jeremy ‘Mango’ Hunter (bass), and Justin Debrincat (drums), do swagger impressively well and use every inch of the stage to their advantage.
Debrincat keeps the group tight throughout the set as he beats his skins into within an inch of their life; Hunter is his cool, calm, collected self behind his bass walking the stage with authority and confidence; Laska owns the night with his mesmerising guitar solos; and Linacre is front man personified, his distinctive vocals holding their own against all the powerful music surrounding him. Together they are a strong, solid band with tremendous talent, killer harmonies and a palpable connection with each other.
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The gents are in fine high spirits, confessing that playing the Forum is on their bucket list, and to commemorate this milestone in their career, the event is being filmed live. The smile on their faces says it all: they are pretty stoked with how far they’ve come and what they’ve achieved. And so they should be.
They delve deeply into the Nashville-produced debut album Microscopic Wars which was nominated for the 2014 ARIA for Best Rock Album, with gritty numbers ‘So Long’ and ‘Ohio’ receiving huge responses, and the latter including a crowd sing-along, and a horns section is introduced on ‘Side To Side’.
Sexy times are had by all as Laska takes the helm with vocals for a change of pace on the slow groover ‘ICFYDLM (I Can Feel You Don’t Love Me)’, Linacre rocks out on his tambourine during fan favourite ‘Yeah Go Die’ and lets his vocals soar on the epic ‘Micro Wars’ and ‘Tremor’, and almost as if on cue a huge head-banging wave sweeps through the room as the set closer ‘Chronos’ revs up.
It is a well-rounded spectacle: the music is just so that it resonates through the floors and into your body; the lights show adds much atmosphere and creates some incredible frenetic silhouettes into the mix; the band teems with boisterous enthusiasm indulging in entertaining banter and sweet interactions with the appreciative crowd; people perch atop friends shoulders, spots of crowd-surfing erupts every now and then, and a compulsory selfie photo with the whole crew, band, and crowd winding up the night.
Leaving the stage to a reverberating chant of “One more song”, they, of course, come back to smash out their Like A Version cover of First Aid Kit’s ‘Wolf’ to a cheering mass.
The thanks they extend to their crew and fans are heartfelt and endearing to witness. They may possess swagger, they may rock hard, they may be growing from strength to strength, but they don’t forget for a second it’s the fans that let them follow their dreams.
Set List
‘She’s My Baby’
‘All Too Much’
‘Sucker Punch’
‘Vlad’
‘Wolf’
‘So Long’
‘ICFYDLM’ (I Can Feel You Don’t Love Me)
‘Tremor’
‘Eye Of The Storm’
‘Hours’ (Interlude)
‘Ohio’
‘Micro Wars’
‘Yeah Go Die’
‘Side To Side’ (horns)
‘Medusa’
‘Piece By Piece’
‘Chronos’
Encore
‘Wolf’ (First Aid Kit cover)
