By Olivia Burns
Australia’s post-hardcore band, The Amity Affliction are currently on the road on their Australian run of their ‘Let The Ocean Take Me – 10 Year Anniversary’ Tour. On the 14th of November, it was Melbourne’s John Cain Arena turn to play host to the massive lineup that consisted of Ice Nine Kills, We Came As Romans and fellow Australian band, Heavensgate.
The sold out show saw the venue filling up fast, all keen to see the openers, the room was a sea of black, most dressed in band merch.
Both Heavensgate and We Came As Romans did a great job warming up the constantly growing audience and there was an undeniable energy in the room.
I could say a lot about Ice Nine Kills performance, there was A LOT happening. The band who draws on inspiration from horror movies for their music, has horror props and actors galore. For the short set of 10 of songs, they gave us a whole theatrical performance, somewhat bringing their music videos to a live show, even having Art the clown make an appearance during their newest release ‘A Work of Art’. This performance has made me want to see a full set of theirs even more now, as I’d love to see what they bring to their own headlining show.
It was the time that we had all been waiting for and The Amity Affliction were finally on stage and to hear their classic ‘Let The Ocean Take Me’ album in full was incredible. It was my first time seeing them live, and they were as great as I had imagined. Joel on the guttural screams, while guitarist Ahren Stringer was on the clean vocals, and wow, did they compliment each other just as much live as they did in the studio.The band’s performance was full of energy from the very start, giving their all to the show, the fans fed off this as crowd surfers were a constant during their set, and multiple circle pits formed throughout the evening. The massive packed out stadium sung along to every word, arms pumped in the air, heads banging along. Certain songs throughout were accompanied by a pyro show adding to the whole experience and I wouldn’t have expected anything less from the legendary band.
During intermission, Joel thanked everyone for their support and reflected on the fact they have been a band for twenty years.
The first half of the show was made up of the tracks for the LTOTM album, ‘Forest Fire’ being a personal favourite of mine, was amazing to finally see live. There was a small break in music as we headed into the second half, Joel asked if we would like to hear some newer music, the crowd screamed in unison and they kicked off into ‘I See Dead People’. A huge sing along erupted from the crowd as they played ‘Drag The Lake’ where he had Ice Nine Kills frontman, Spencer join in.
After leaving the stage, the crowd started chanting for one more song, to which of course the band obliged and made their appearance again for their encore performance. Joel asked if we wanted one….or two songs, unsurprisingly people screamed out two, we were granted this and we had the night end on ‘It’s Hell Down Here’ and ‘Soak Me in Bleach’ where we were met with a confetti and pyro waterfall from the ceiling.
It always brings pride seeing a band of this genre from Australia doing massive sold out arenas of this scale and truly getting the credit they deserve. The Amity Affliction are a band that has paved the way for many and ‘Let The Ocean Take Me’ has played a vital role in the majority of any heavy music lovers’ life over the past decade, it was special to be able to attend these shows and celebrate with them. We look forward to celebrating hopefully in another 10 years time, with them still cranking out new albums!
Photo Gallery : The Amity Affliction – John Cain Arena (11.14.2024)
