Wednesday 15th February, 2012 – Review by Keaton McSweeney

The hardcore set was assembled early at Amplifier on Wednesday Feb 15, with a large, talkative crowd already in attendance by 8:30pm. Such is the gravitational pull of US post-hardcore cult-act LA DISPUTE, in Perth to promote their sophomore album ‘Wild Life’. A kind of electricity had begun conducting through the sea of tattooed bodies from early on – one that you could not help but get caught up in. It was the feeling that a lot of passionate people were about to see one of their all time favourite bands; that this wouldn’t be your typical hardcore show – and they were excited about it.

And just to make completely sure that this wasn’t going to be your average night of hardcore, local guitar heroes, THE LOVE JUNKIES were chosen to open up the show. Talk about a curveball. Looking like the three guys you saw dancing on acid at some random doof the other weekend, the Junkies proceeded to stun the unprepared crowd with an onslaught of high-gain garage rock, punctuated with some life-affirming guitar shred courtesy of lead vocalist/guitarist, Mitch McDonald. Eschewing their new single ‘Louise’ (“too slow for this crowd” said bass player Robbie Rumble), the Junkies chose instead to unleash it’s B-side ‘Black Sheep Blues’, with its dusty slide guitar stomp collapsing into a monolithic fuzz riff that had even the most cynical onlookers nodding along. Unashamedly intense, gripping to watch and exploding with huge riffs at every turn, the band’s final song was met with loud applause from the largely unfamiliar crowd.

Perth’s VANITY were next up, playing a style of music much more familiar to the ever-growing audience. However, sandwiched between the roaring fuzz of The Love Junkies and the gripping post-punk of LA Dispute, Vanity’s set of hardcore punk came off as almost, well, tame and by-the-numbers. However, this is not to say that they weren’t good. On the contrary, the rhythm section was tight, guitar riffs were thick and chugging, and lead vocalist Shaun Griffiths’ scream could cook a steak medium-well. In fact, his voice is this band’s key strength; not only is it piercing enough to cut your head off, it’s also strong and doesn’t waver, seeming to gain a trembling intensity as the set proceeded. Currently in the process of writing a new full length, the band showcased sludgy fresh track ‘Dead Exits’ before Griffith’s took to the floor for the band’s final song.

With the show almost certainly sold out by this point, the band room was well and truly at capacity by the time LA Dispute took the stage. Receiving a warm reception from the crowd, the question at this point was this: having released one of the most visceral, lyrically confronting punk records of last year, could that intensity be recreated in a live environment? From the get-go, the answer was a resounding ‘YES’. Opening with ‘A Departure’ from ‘Wild Life’, the band’s sound was raw and vital, the guitars trebly and the bass high in the mix, while tambourine-wielding lead vocalist, Jordan Dreyer’s gasping, emotion-wracked vocal style seemed even more intense (if possible) than that produced on the record. As they kicked into their second number, the first of many instances of crowd-surfing occurred, and by the time the high octane ‘Harder Harmonies’ reached its climax, the crowd was screaming along with Dreyer’s every refrain. After a brief introduction to the band, the slim vocalist led the group into the existential angst of ‘A Letter’, playing it back to back with the powerful and terrifying ‘Edward Benz, 27 Times’, the story of a man who is brutally attacked by his schizophrenic son. The juxtaposition between the band’s new material and the songs from their 2008 debut provided a textbook example of a band evolving; the earlier songs possessing a heaviness and simplicity that the band obviously jettisoned before the recording of their sophomore release, which is almost completely devoid of recognisable choruses or hooks in favour of slowly building pieces that border on spoken word. The set was heavy on new material, and consequently the heaving crowd met the band’s few familiar older songs with fervour. After thanking their audience profusely and encouraging their support of Australian youth mental illness organisation Headspace, the band ended the main set with ‘Wild Life’ closer ‘You and I in Unison’.

With the capacity crowd demanding an encore, the band soon returned to the stage to play the lyrically intense ‘I See Everything’, an ode to a mother losing her son to cancer, before leaving the crowd with fan favourite ‘Said the King to the River’. Bathed in blue stage lights and clearly overwhelmed by the turnout, the band seemed genuinely appreciative of the ovation they received, and promised to return in the near future.