It's been too long since I last saw Dead Letter Circus (along with most of the crowd at the Sands tonight), but it's understandable with their relentless touring schedule they have experienced over the last 12 months.

Tonight was a very welcome return to two adopted Sunshine Coast bands (Dead Letter Circus has been taken in as one of our own, much like The Butterfly Effect in their early days - plus they have Luke 'Licka' Williams as their resident drummer, and Sydonia feature one half Melbournites, one half Sunshine Coasters).

Local boys, Technical Symplicity got the night warmed up with a quick, energetic set of progressive, melodic hard rock. This will be their last show for a while as they go into hiding to write new material to follow up last year's EP. You can tell they're making the most of it, working the crowd and getting them to sing along to songs like White Rose Wednesday. It's quite rare to see so many people turn up early to catch the first support act.

Sydonia have been a very busy bunch over the last 18 months, with supporting tours with Slipknot, Machinehead in Australia, as well as a US tour with Stonesour, these guys even impressed the mighty Lamb of God, so for the uninitiated (like myself) I was expecting big things. I wasn't disappointed. These guys have a very unique approach to a progressive metal sound, with blasting percussion, tight bass lines, ambient, then grating guitars and the very original vocal work of frontman Dana.

I've never been a huge fan of falsettos in metal (bad 80's metal comes to mind - not the good stuff, but the over-the-top glam metal), but the way Dana blends his falsetto work with the driving beats and full sound, it sounds like nothing else.

Their multi-drum jam in the middle of the set was stunning, as they invited DLC's Licka and Stu up to help them.

 

This was, however, The Space on the Wall Tour, so it was no surprise that as soon as Dead Letter Circus stepped the multi-talented feet onto the stage that the crowd went ballistic.

Kicking off with an experimental intro to The Mile, the crowd were nearly drowning out frontman Kim's vocals. The set was a mix of old and the new, working in classic DLC songs like Tremors, Alien, Lines (where Kim invited Technical Symplicity vocalist Wade up on stage to get the crowd working, including an impromptu stage dive/crowd surf), and then mixing in new material - some previously unheard, as well as Triple J favourites like Reaction, the new single The Space on the Wall, and set closer, Next In Line.

Drummer Licka is now adding vocals in the mix, giving some extra support to Kim's highly recognised vocals, bassist Stu is as solid as ever and now adding in some synth sounds to his already complex basslines, and guitarst Rob's trademark DLC guitar sound is as present as ever.

Bands like Dead Letter Circus and Sydonia are a true testament that Australia (and Brisbane/Sunshine Coast/Melobourne) is producing absolutely arse-kicking melodic, heavy music of such a high standard.

 

 

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