Live Review: Luca Brasi, Initials, Tigers

Opening the show tonight is local punk band Tigers. Bassist Daniel Bonnici and guitarist Nick Hauser share vocal duties on most songs, with Bonnici’s rough bark contrasted by Hauser’s smoother delivery.

Hauser introduces one song with, “This isn’t a Pennywise song but it’s got blastbeats,” and that sums up the two extremes of Tigers’ sound pretty well – from melodic pop-punk to much heavier hardcore.

While not as heavy or fast as Tigers, Initials bring an equally intense performance. They’ve been gigging constantly this year since the release of their debut album Leave Expired and, as a result, they’ve got their live show down to a fine art.

Singer/bassist Jim Duggan makes use of as much of the stage space as possible, throwing himself around, while guitarist Pete Lawrey wrangles riffs (and squalls of feedback) from his guitar and drummer Adam Collins attacks his drums relentlessly. Worn Thin is a highlight of their ferocious set.

Within seconds of Borders And Statelines, Luca Brasi’s opening song, the crowd is a mess of bodies and fists in the air. This briefly creates some issues as mic stands get knocked over and guitarist Patrick Marshall’s pedal set-up gets unplugged in the chaos. But the band clearly enjoys it. Their shows have always been full of unbridled enthusiasm and emotion, from both the band and the crowd, and tonight promises to be no different. Every song has the crowd roaring along to every single word, completely lost in the music.

It would be easy (and far too lazy) to write off Luca Brasi’s songs as simple, boozy singalong fare, but that would be ignoring the depth of emotion in their lyrics. The most poignant moment comes late in the set with the song Two Snakes. The song (dedicated to and about a friend who passed away) clearly affects singer Tyler Richardson, who looks upwards when singing, “Taken too soon/We’re giving this one to you.” The crowd are at their loudest during this song too, accentuating the feeling of camaraderie that happens at Luca Brasi shows.

The band finish with perennial favourite Theme Song From HQ, which sees a near-constant stream of people stage-diving and crowdsurfing and perfectly caps off a fantastic show.