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Astronomer · 11-01-2008, 02:57 AM

The Butterfly Effect
featuring
Trial Kennedy and Sleep Parade
30th October 2008
Queensbridge Hotel, Melbourne

The Queensbridge Hotel (QBH) is quickly becoming Melbourne’s go-to when it comes to flaunting great Australian music, and having already seen Karnivool and The Living End play there in the past 6 months, I wasn’t surprised to see it was the chosen venue to host The Butterfly Effect, along with Sleep Parade and Trial Kennedy. QBH is a great venue with an efficient layout, plenty of room, and fantastic sound quality.

Sleep Parade, a three piece prog-rock outfit, opened the evening. Having supported Porcupine Tree earlier in the year, I was rather excited to hear them in depth for the first time. From my experiences, I’ve learnt that an audio engineer can make or break a live performance, and in this case I’m disappointed to say that Sleep Parade were definitely broken on Thursday night. The sound in the venue was not up to scratch – lead guitar and vocals were somehow being drowned out by bass and back-up vocals, while everything was being drowned out by drums. Sleep Parade are also known for their moving three-way harmonies but unfortunately the sound set-up and equipment did not do this justice. However, despite the sound quality lacking, I was still nevertheless very impressed. Having not heard their debut album before, I was awed by their silvery vocals, streaming melodies, and moving instrumentals. I also heard some killer riffs that make sure you can’t not nod your head to, and their unhinged, in-your-face style stage-presence made sure of this. Definitely a unique and impressive fresh band that I hope to see again sometime soon, and will definitely be purchasing their album.

Trial Kennedy, another Melbournian rock band, then proceeded to take the stage. While songs like ‘Colour Day Tours’ were kind-of of fun to bop along to, their music really didn’t compel me that much and as far as live performances go, they were pretty mediocre. They had, however, a fairly large fan base that sang and jumped along and succeeded to set a buzzing atmosphere for The Butterfly Effect, who appeared on stage after a long wait being grinded into the front row barriers by sweaty patrons.

To say The Butterfly Effect’s performance was amazing would be a little bit of an understatement. Hailing from Brisbane, I have always loved their beautiful progressive/ alternative rock sound that continues to mature and change with each record, but I have to say after Thursday night I love them even more. Like most Aussie rock outfits, they have a particular bold stage presence which never fails to captivate and entertain audiences. Playing a very satisfying 70 minute set, Clint’s vocals were beyond angelic, Kurt was screaming passion on guitars, Glenn was surging good energy on bass, and Ben was also fantastic on drums. They opened with ‘Worlds on Fire’ from their new album Final Conversation of Kings which I think is an absolutely awesome opening piece with a great build-up for the rest of the set, which consisted of favourites ‘A Slow Descent,’ ‘Gone,’ ‘Crave,’ and others from both new and old records. Despite Kurt falling down in-between two speaker-boxes twice, the band were full of positive performing energy and the crowd were charged which moshing, singing, crowd-surfing, and lost shoes. The only criticism I have of their performance would be the fact that after the encore, they came back to play pumping favourites but then finished with ‘Sum of 1’ which is a really odd piece to close with. On the album, 'Worlds on Fire' is track 1 while ‘Sum of 1’ is the last track, and they both kind-of round each other up. However, trying to get this to work live was silly and didn't work at all. ‘Sum of 1’ is a quiet, slow-paced, short little round-up and a very inappropriate song to close with – I would have liked to see them go off with a bang, as most bands usually do.

Nevertheless, they put on a fantastic show and I thoroughly enjoyed the night. All bands were of pretty high standards, I got pulled into the attraction of Sleep Parade and plan to go purchase their record, and The Butterfly Effect were astonishingly tight and just awesome to watch.

These photographs were taken at the actual event, by MySpace Pix:

Links:
The Butterfly Effect - Final Conversation of Kings
Trial Kennedy's Official Site
MySpace.com - SLEEP PARADE - Melbourne, AU - Progressive / Rock / Alternative - www.myspace.com/sleepparade

11-01-2008, 02:57 AM	#2 (permalink)
Astronomer we are stardust Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Australia Posts: 2,894	The Butterfly Effect featuring Trial Kennedy and Sleep Parade 30th October 2008 Queensbridge Hotel, Melbourne The Queensbridge Hotel (QBH) is quickly becoming Melbourne’s go-to when it comes to flaunting great Australian music, and having already seen Karnivool and The Living End play there in the past 6 months, I wasn’t surprised to see it was the chosen venue to host The Butterfly Effect, along with Sleep Parade and Trial Kennedy. QBH is a great venue with an efficient layout, plenty of room, and fantastic sound quality. Sleep Parade, a three piece prog-rock outfit, opened the evening. Having supported Porcupine Tree earlier in the year, I was rather excited to hear them in depth for the first time. From my experiences, I’ve learnt that an audio engineer can make or break a live performance, and in this case I’m disappointed to say that Sleep Parade were definitely broken on Thursday night. The sound in the venue was not up to scratch – lead guitar and vocals were somehow being drowned out by bass and back-up vocals, while everything was being drowned out by drums. Sleep Parade are also known for their moving three-way harmonies but unfortunately the sound set-up and equipment did not do this justice. However, despite the sound quality lacking, I was still nevertheless very impressed. Having not heard their debut album before, I was awed by their silvery vocals, streaming melodies, and moving instrumentals. I also heard some killer riffs that make sure you can’t not nod your head to, and their unhinged, in-your-face style stage-presence made sure of this. Definitely a unique and impressive fresh band that I hope to see again sometime soon, and will definitely be purchasing their album. Trial Kennedy, another Melbournian rock band, then proceeded to take the stage. While songs like ‘Colour Day Tours’ were kind-of of fun to bop along to, their music really didn’t compel me that much and as far as live performances go, they were pretty mediocre. They had, however, a fairly large fan base that sang and jumped along and succeeded to set a buzzing atmosphere for The Butterfly Effect, who appeared on stage after a long wait being grinded into the front row barriers by sweaty patrons. To say The Butterfly Effect’s performance was amazing would be a little bit of an understatement. Hailing from Brisbane, I have always loved their beautiful progressive/ alternative rock sound that continues to mature and change with each record, but I have to say after Thursday night I love them even more. Like most Aussie rock outfits, they have a particular bold stage presence which never fails to captivate and entertain audiences. Playing a very satisfying 70 minute set, Clint’s vocals were beyond angelic, Kurt was screaming passion on guitars, Glenn was surging good energy on bass, and Ben was also fantastic on drums. They opened with ‘Worlds on Fire’ from their new album Final Conversation of Kings which I think is an absolutely awesome opening piece with a great build-up for the rest of the set, which consisted of favourites ‘A Slow Descent,’ ‘Gone,’ ‘Crave,’ and others from both new and old records. Despite Kurt falling down in-between two speaker-boxes twice, the band were full of positive performing energy and the crowd were charged which moshing, singing, crowd-surfing, and lost shoes. The only criticism I have of their performance would be the fact that after the encore, they came back to play pumping favourites but then finished with ‘Sum of 1’ which is a really odd piece to close with. On the album, 'Worlds on Fire' is track 1 while ‘Sum of 1’ is the last track, and they both kind-of round each other up. However, trying to get this to work live was silly and didn't work at all. ‘Sum of 1’ is a quiet, slow-paced, short little round-up and a very inappropriate song to close with – I would have liked to see them go off with a bang, as most bands usually do. Nevertheless, they put on a fantastic show and I thoroughly enjoyed the night. All bands were of pretty high standards, I got pulled into the attraction of Sleep Parade and plan to go purchase their record, and The Butterfly Effect were astonishingly tight and just awesome to watch. These photographs were taken at the actual event, by MySpace Pix: Links: The Butterfly Effect - Final Conversation of Kings Trial Kennedy's Official Site MySpace.com - SLEEP PARADE - Melbourne, AU - Progressive / Rock / Alternative - www.myspace.com/sleepparade __________________ Last edited by Astronomer; 11-18-2008 at 03:56 PM.