Gallery, ReviewDitch This MagazineNovember 02, 2019gallery, live, melbourne, Gallery, review, Daniel Hanssen, Dz Deathrays, Polish Club, Voiid, The Bouys, forum melbourne

DZ Deathrays + Polish Club + Voiid + The Bouys @ The Forum 25-10-19

Gallery, ReviewDitch This MagazineNovember 02, 2019gallery, live, melbourne, Gallery, review, Daniel Hanssen, Dz Deathrays, Polish Club, Voiid, The Bouys, forum melbourne

words & photos: Daniel Hanssen @danthegigman

Review

*“..always been a band of incredible presence, controlling the nature of the music beast with general ease and clarity..”*

DZ Deathrays have always been a big part in a growing Australian community of musicians, ever since their initial debut of Bloodlines in 2012 the band has been on fire, posting festival spots, sold out tours and multiple highly regarded LPs. Their fourth release Positive Vibrations Pt. 1 has been no different and has sent the trio once again around the country to give their fan’s a little of their powerhouse rock in 2019.

DZ Deathrays was joined by an eclectic mix of band’s to open their performance hailing from many different corners of Australia’s music scene. Starting off with The Buoys and VOIID was a good starting proponent as The Buoys started a slow pump up before VOIID came on stage to really turn up the party. Their lead vocalist Anji Greenwood personified the band’s unforgiving sound through a performance that would have left many of the people in the crowd clamouring to their phones to stream a little more of their music later on.

Of course, DZ saved the best opener for last, a band arguably on similar statures, but definitely the right kind to pump up before their set; Polish Club. While Polish Club’s brand is entirely different to DZ it’s the energy that counts, giving the crowd a massive injection before DZ arrived, Polish Club’s mini party only lasted forty five minutes but as a band that prides themselves of shorter, faster blaster songs they managed to smash out a relatively long set list. It contained all of the favourites, as “Clarity”, “Iguana”, “Divided”, “We Don’t Care”, and their closing track “Don’t Fuck Me Over” crashed through the set the course. As usual, John-Henry and Novak managed to fit a lot of banter into their set, ribbing each other alongside some little anecdotes into the tracks bringing a more in-depth look into why the now-trio has boomed into such a big band over the last few years.

DZ Deathrays have always been a band of incredible presence, controlling the nature of the music beast with general ease and clarity as punters clamour through the band’s moshes. Yet, DZ’s music is always present, even in the thickest haze of a mosh, the twirling riffs from Shane Parsons or Lachie Ewbank combined with the crashing of Simon Ridley’s drum kit.

Friday night at the Forum was no different even with a big name opener such as Polish Club, the trio from DZ Deathrays stayed true to themselves, while still managing to pull out a bit of fun for their fourth album’s celebration by decking themselves out in swanky suits.

The setlist felt quite standard for the band, but as the old adage says, don’t fix what ain’t broke, DZ set out with their classics as “Gina Works At Hearts”, “Like People”, “Total Meltdown” and “Afterglow” sat at the heart of their list. This was of course compounded by new favourites such as single release “IN-TO-IT” and “Still No Changes” both off of their new release.

The band opted for no encore for the evening, a fitting decision considering the momentum the trio had built up through their set and while their final song choice “Shred For Summer” was an obvious choice for long time fans of the band it nethertheless went off as if it were being played for the first time. The momentum was slowed as Lachie and Simon swapped instruments to allow Lachie to thrash his way through a pretty impressive drum solo, lighting the room up. Sadly, the changeover was a bit awkward, but allowed for the fans to see a little more out of both Lachie and Simon before the night finished up.