The high humidity of the Enmore Theatre and the several brawls during the show didn’t stop heavy music fans of all ages from enjoying their Friday night watching Easy Life, Sworn In, ERRA and Sydney’s own, Northlane.
The night started off with a slight mix up with set times, meaning the opening act, Easy Life, started at the time doors were previously thought to be opened. This resulted in the first act to play to a small amount of people that the band probably were not expecting. This didn’t stop fans of the hardcore punk band from singing along, headbanging and jumping to the great opening act.
When Sworn In hit the stage, there weren’t many more people in the crowd than previously, leading to an empty atmosphere while the international metalcore band got the crowd moving. All the mosh pits, brawls and failed circle pits of the night began as Sworn In gave Sydney their all in their performance. Although there was only little movement in the crowd, prog metal band ERRA were yet to hit the stage and show the audience how well they could perform their technical metalcore.
From the moment the first riff of the set kicked in, almost the entire crowd were off their feet. The technical guitar-work and drumming of the set showed Sydney that the four men from Alabama were there to show off their talents. With bangers such as Skyline and Hybrid Earth, ERRA did an amazing job at warming up the audience for Northlane.
The roar of the crowd was deafening when Sydney’s own Marcus Bridge, along with other bandmates, joined the stage. From the opening song Colourwave from new album Mesmer, everyone in Enmore Theatre was either jumping, dancing or singing along as Northlane showcased their evolution as a metalcore act. Up next was older song, Worldeater, showing that they still haven’t completely torn from their roots as being a heavier band. The next song, Rot, had everyone singing along as it was most well known for being the first released song with Marcus as the singer. Newer song, Heartmachine, had mixed views from the crowd, as fewer people sang along and more people stood with their arms crossed hoping it would make the band heavier again. Dream Awake, Render and Citizen were then performed, before a short speech about Sydney and joy. Solar came up next, again not getting much of a big response as the older songs, such as Dispossession which came on immediately after. From the opening guitar line, the crowd pushed up to the barricade to get as close as possible to the band or to get as big of a mosh pit as possible. This individual song got the crowd ready for what lay ahead. Intiuition and Quantum Flux were up next which challenged the voice boxes of all the fans singing along to every word. The night was thought to be ended when Northlane played Obelisk and Weightless and then left the stage. The cliche “one more song” chant began and the band returned to stage to play one last song, Paragon, confusing the crowd. Some were expecting more songs to end with or at least a different, more popular song such as Masquerade but did not get what they were expecting. The night ended with Enmore Theatre being filled with smoke arising from the sweaty heads of hundreds of fans.
Review by Robert Tannous