Live Review: The Red Paintings, Teal, We Lost The Sea

Virtually banter-less and stationary more often than not, local post-metal outfit We Lost The Sea required nothing more than their instruments to put on a completely captivating performance - unlike the acts that would follow. This is a band that knows the art of subtlety; a band that, even in the most raucous moments of their music, remain cautious and attentive to the sounds they're respectively creating. The cacophony of feedback and the echoes of the brilliantly mixed kick-drum that followed the seamlessly integrated transition during With Grace remained as controlled as the subdued instrumentation that came before.

Teal frontman, Joe, brought about a considerable shift to the formerly sombre atmosphere We Lost The Sea had created. With movements as flambouyant as his on-stage persona, his hyper-active personality was a lot to take in as was his vocal style. Joe's intensity was not out of place; backing his powerfully-executed vocals was the accompaniment of equally extravagant guitar parts that carried the cinematic style of Muse. Epic though it may have been, the lack of restraint inherently led to a lack of variety in the band's performance.

From there, the melodrama only increased, with The Red Paintings' stage-show revolving less around the quality of the music being played and more around an elaborate display of artistic oddities. As frontman Trash McSweeney wailed political musings, people dressed entirely in black wearing skeletal blue lights skulked around the stage before proceeding to colourfully paint two women entirely black throughout the performance. There was a lot going on, but it suited the excessive nature of the The Red Paintings' music.

The dominance of theatrics and over-dramatics in Teal and The Red Paintings' performances were certainly enough to grab one's attention, but it was the absence of any pretension and a modest display of brilliant musicianship that set We Lost The Sea's set apart from the other two performances.