LIVE: PVRIS // Join The CVLT

PVRIS with The Faim
The Metro Theatre, Sydney
Friday 15th June, 2018

PVRIS have been tearing up the scene with their incredibly hard to categorise brand of indie-alt-synth-pop for the last six years, building up a dedicated CVLT following in the process. Friday night saw the Sydney leg of their hugely anticipated first Australian headliner unfold.

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The sole support for the night was Perth based band, The Faim, who pulled out a solid opener with My Heart Needs to Breathe. As their set progressed they tore through some high energy rock ditties’, making sure the theatre was awash with a sea of fists in the air the entire time. Vocalist, Josh Raven was the human embodiment of the energiser bunny through it all; jumping around all over the place, kicking his legs up, head banging and pulling every facial gesture under the sun, all while maintaining his pitch perfect vocal abilities. There was a softer side to the band that came through when Raven stepped into the crowd to perform their emotional ballad Where the River Runs, eliciting a bunch of fangirl squeals in the process.

The Faim // By Sandra Markovic

What really stood about their set though was how remarkably free it was from any cheesy attempts at jokes. Sure, there were a couple of standard speeches about how grateful they were to be supporting PVRIS and some cues for the crowd to jump and get their hands up, but for the most part the four piece used their slot to pump out track after track. With such punchy, memorable tunes though, the banter wasn’t necessary to draw a crowd in. Give the boys a couple of years and they’ll be headlining their own arena tours.

As PVRIS took the stage, the energy levels in the near capacity crowd rivalled those you would find at an early 2000’s school disco, soundtracked by a So Fresh compilation. After a long winded instrumental introduction, the trio kicked off with Heaven, and had the crowd grooving and singing along from the get go. Considering that this is the band’s first headlining tour in Australia, they tore through a set of crowd favourites from the moodier All We Know of Heaven, All We Need of Hell and the more electronic White Noise. Through all this, front-woman Lynn Gunn flexed between playing piano, holding down riff duties, drumming and maintaining her insane vocal range, proving she has more talent in her pinkie than most of us have in our entire body.

PVRIS // By Sandra Markovic

PVRIS // By Sandra Markovic

Taking a brief intermission from playing, the band treated the packed crowd to some halftime show entertainment, cracking a couple of jokes about their insane jet lag and Gunn’s penchant for making tuna sandwiches at 4am when sleep deprived. After a punter confused the hell out of them by leading a ‘wake up Jeff’ chant, they jumped back into their set with a haunting, stripped back rendition of Same Soul. After tearing through a couple more hits from A.W.K.O.H.A.W.N.O.H, PVRIS closed with a gritty, heavy performance of My House before the anticipated chants for an encore brought them back to play No Mercy.  

PVRIS // By Sandra Markovic

PVRIS // By Sandra Markovic

PVRIS // By Sandra Markovic

The last time PVRIS visited our shores was in support of The Amity Affliction, where their brand of synth rock seemed to get a little lost in the mix, eliciting only a mellow reaction from crowds. That definitely wasn’t the case this time around though, the trio well and truly turned The Metro into their house (I’ll see myself out for that terrible joke). Let’s just hope it won’t take another six years for the band to hit our shores for their next headliner.

PVRIS play 170 Russell in Melbourne tonight with special guests The Faim, tickets available here.