Live Review: Dance Gavin Dance, Veil Of Maya, Belle Haven

The frontman of Belle Haven, David De La Hoz, states that the members of his band are a little "intimidated" by being on tour and opening up for two such technically proficient bands. You can understand why he might say that – however, they need not have worried. Belle Haven jump up on the Corner stage and make it their own for 30 minutes, impressing the steadily building crowd to no end with their big, sometimes three-way vocal harmonies, crushing breakdowns and dynamic stage presence. They are just a touch let down by a bit of a stodgy drum sound, but more than make up for this with the infectious enthusiasm that flows off the stage in neverending waves.

Veil Of Maya really are something quite astonishing. They display a level of sheer technical insanity rarely seen; watching the hands of guitarist Marc Okubo and bassist Danny Hauser move all over the fretboard in a frenzy of notes is something to behold. Their material is a prime example of meticulously formulated musical chaos.

Witnessing a massive, rousing singalong chorus somehow emerge from that maelstrom is even more impressive. It’s a mystery as to how they achieve it, but somehow this band manages to find coherence and cohesiveness in the chaos, songcraft in the insanity, and they get the sold out Corner crowd jumping. Just jumping in polymetric time and, ultimately, in a pole-to-pole circle pit from hell.

Dance Gavin Dance receive a veritable hero’s welcome when they take the stage. Their tunes – less techy and less brutal than Veil Of Maya’s – have even more of a singalong vibe to them. And sing along the crowd does. A fair percentage seem to know each and every word of every song. There is much spontaneous audience involvement, and band and audience alike feed voraciously off that mutual energy.

This band has been around for a long time, no doubt touring like work dogs for much of that time, and everything just works. The twin vocal tradeoff is particularly effective, and the band behind that double-barrelled vocal assault locks in joyous clockwork.

These three bands are very different, however, they blend seamlessly with each other on a live bill, and the sweat-soaked crowd leaves the venue with ear-to-ear smiles on this balmy Melbourne evening.