While Download Festival in Australia has come and gone this past weekend, some of the bands on the bill continued with additional shows across Australia much to the delight of fans who were not able to make the trek to the big events. Perth, while unluckily been the victim of many missed tours lately, scored the opportunity to see some of the bands on their sideshows with Converge being one of them. Thursday night’s attendance at the Rosemount Hotel was suitably packed as punters showed some support for a band that delivers uncompromising brutality.
Opening for the night were local lads World’s Apart and if any band was going to open for Converge it’s going to be these guys. With a form of chaos that does lend itself to Converge’s very own frenzied attack, the band pulled no punches in trying to impress the early crowd who clearly came for this brand of music. Viciously raw but with some serious 1-2 punch attacks, World’s Apart are much like Converge – not for everyone but brutal at what they do.
To contrast that, US indie punk thrashers War On Women made their debut on Australian soil as part of the Download Festival and included Perth on their trek alongside Converge as main support, bringing a more punkier edge to the show. Borrowing elements from a few genres intertwined with each other, hardcore, punk, thrash and a bit of indie rock, the mostly female act had some choice cuts that were, while different to the chaos that is World’s Apart and Converge, still managed to fit in line with the overall vibe of the show. Outside the box with that punk ethos and some political jabs and social commentary on the world around us. The crowd was suitably impressed for first timers, captured by a fairly full house by this point.
Leading the pack tonight of course was Converge, a band that has been a mainstay in non-tradditional hardcore/metal that at the time they first came onto the scene back in the 90’s, were clearly ahead of their time and which has seen the likes of more out there kind of music since their inception. No doubt comparisons to such bands as Dillinger Escape Plan are inevitable but Converge prefer to kick your butt from start to finish and not give much leniency in the way of any kind of dynamically driven melody or predictable structure.
Converge is chaotic in it’s pure essence and as mentioned before, this kind of music is not for everyone. But that hasn’t stopped the loyal followers over the years appreciate and point to this band as a true pioneer in progressive music. They may be considered an underground band in some ways for those not deeply involved in metal and it’s myriad of sub-genres but most metal fans well invested in the heavier music have at least come across Converge in some form so their impact on extreme metal has certainly not been acknowledged.
Tonight was their triumphant return to Perth after previous visits over the years, a fact that also has been well appreciated by fans who keep coming to support the band. Their appearance at Download Festival in Melbourne admittedly went a little over my head and in hindsight was probably more to do with other factors outside of the performance itself including the open stage area, sound and the fact that Converge have always to me, been a more gritty, in your face, club band spitting out venemous music and roaring vocal lines to more hardcore fans who appreciate this form of music a little more than your average festival goer.
The band crammed in a bucket load of songs within the hour they were given, curfew unfortunately at this venue in this area of Perth dictates setlists more than it should but Converge pushed it to the utmost limit and managed to go over a good portion of their back catalogue as well as some newer material including the title track to “All We Love We Leave Behind” which stood out in the second half of the show. It was that Second half that really saw the band crank things up and while the crowd didn’t get anywhere near as crazy as their Download sets, punters seemed to take it all in stride and just appreciate the band’s stellar tightness and viciousness of it all rather than lose control. The band however did go nuts on stage to make up for it with vocalist Jacob Bannon giving it his all in a ferocious performance that makes you wonder how he has been able to do this for so long at that level.
The one thing noticable about Converge live is how much more powerful they are compared to the studio albums. While there’s a rawness live here that maybe sometimes gets lost in translation, there’s no denying how much more heavier they sound in person and how much more chaotic it really is when performed. Either way fans left the show afterwards feeling pretty satisfied with what went down and I’m sure the band, who have left their mark on the country with this final show on the tour, can walk away hopefully feeling good knowing that.
