AERIALS // Making Waves

AERIALS with He Danced Ivy, Tai Sui & Hella Haunts
The Foundry, Brisbane
Friday 20 July 2018

It is so refreshing when you go to a gig and become exposed to three other great bands thanks to a great lineup put together by the headlining band Aerials. This is exactly what Aerials achieved for tonights Drawing Blood release show at the Foundry.

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Walking up the stairs to the band room, the distorted bass and dual vocals of Tai Sui filled the air and our interest was instantly piqued by their sound. With influences ranging from Heavy Metal, Shock Rock, Hip Hop and Power Pop, the dual vocals between front-woman Lexi and Bassist Nate, work extremely well together and fit perfectly over Churv’s interplay on the guitar.

The powerhouse that is Ronny, bashing his drum kit and driving each song forward was a sight to see, especially when we later learned that he is originally a Keyboardist/Guitarist and that he had only picked up playing Drums a few short days before his first gig with the band. He seems at home on the kit despite only being on the stool for a few months.

Tai Sui are a band to watch, and we can see they have great things to come in the future.

Tai Sui // By Gethin Hill

Next up was the debut performance of Brisbane 2 piece rock outfit Hella Haunts, and as far as first shows for any bands go, this was a great opportunity, albeit a daunting one at the same time. By the time the band kicked into their first song, the band room had started to fill up considerably and all eyes were directed straight at the stage in anticipation.

It is always interesting to see how 2 pieces go in a live setting, especially when they are sandwiched between a couple of bands with multiple guitarists/members/invisible keyboardists … (I’ll touch back on this later) but luckily for Hella Haunts, Jay utilises his Bass with some cool effects to give certain parts of songs extra depth for the heavy heavies, and can also pull it right back to give the song room to move.

Hella Haunts had some catchy elements, great stage presence and banter between songs from both members. Drummer Calvin replied to a call from the crowd asking him to “take it off” with “I’m married now and have a Dad bod, nobody wants to see that!” which got quite a few giggles form the crowd.

Hella Haunts // By Gethin Hill

The third band on the lineup is He Danced Ivy. Fresh off the launch for their new single Guillotines, He Danced Ivy are a perfect fit for tonights lineup with their take on multi layered vocal prog punk rock.

When they kick into their set, its easy to liken them to purveyors of prog The Mars Volta and Australia’s own, Closure in Moscow, but they bring a much more playful live performance more akin to Brisbane peers Osaka Punch.

Lead Vocalist and Guitarist Dave, swings his arms like an eccentric Italian conducting an orchestra pit in between rocking out with his guitar and belting out massive notes with Lead Guitarist Sean, Lead Bassist Mitch, and Lead Drummer Josh all providing vocal duties as well.

It just takes one look at their Facebook profile to see that they are a band that love the music they make, but make sure they have fun playing it at the same time, hence the so many lead roles the members hold within the band.

He Danced Ivy perform extremely well and have the whole crowd engaged, which is now nearly 200 strong, moving to their every beat and note.

He Danced Ivy // By Gethin Hill

Aerials—the enigmatic Brisbane 3 piece have been causing waves around the country over the past few years with two Independent EP releases and now the release of their newest single, Drawing Blood.

Produced by Dead Letter Circus guitarists and producers Clint ‘Vinnie’ Vincent and Luke ‘Palms’ Palmer at the beginning of the year on the Gold Coast, Drawing Blood sees the band exploring heavier ground than their previous efforts and sees them utilising the skills of their production team to bring the best version of the song to the fore.

Aerials // By Gethin Hill

Brendan has always been an amazing drummer to watch, as he belts out the skins on his kit and tonight it was no exception, kicking the band right into the opening track Voices which was followed with screams and whistles of approval from the crowd.

Before Aerials could kick in to the second song however, it seemed their ‘invisible lead keyboardist’ decided that they didn’t want to play anymore which caused some technical difficulty stopping the band from performing.

Technical difficulties are never easy for any band to recover from, especially when its your second song … but the show must go on and the guys took it in their stride. Guitarist Tristan Chu lead us into a stripped back performance of Patient Parades with Jackson laying down his Bass to give an amazing vocal delivery of the 4th track from their debut EP Firefights.

Aerials // By Gethin Hill

It seemed that the technical difficulty was still … difficult to fix … so Tristan handed his guitar over to Jackson to perform an impromptu solo performance of Silhouettes, the second track off of Firefights. which I personally think added a much more personal approach to the nights proceedings as we got to see 2 of their biggest songs in a stripped back, impromptu performance.

After some back and forth from the sound desk to the stage, things seemed to be back on track and the Aerials ‘Keyboardist’ ahem … (Backing track) was pumping through the speakers and the rock show was ready to continue as planned.

The lads wasted no time and kicked straight into Symptoms off of their 2015 release, Restless and followed it up with No More Nights, The Fall a full performance of Silhouettes and closed of the set with Restless’ and the song everyone had came to hear, Drawing Blood.

Not to take anything away from their amazing back catalogue, but Drawing Blood is delivered with energy and passion that far surpasses their earlier material, especially with its extended heavy outro.

Catch Aerials at Cherry Bar in Melbourne on Friday July 27.