BILLY TALENT // They Knocked Down This City

BILLY TALENT w/ The City Shakeup – Max Watts, Brisbane 11 August 2016

It’s hard to think of a time Billy Talent has had a misstep on Australian soil.

And it’s testament to this that after a few runs across the country during the Soundwave days, they can still fill up Max Watts in Brisbane’s West End with reformed emos and people who know rock n roll sounds best in a club. 

The City Shakeup // Photo: Matt Warrell

Locals The City Shakeup have always worn the influence of Billy Talent as a badge of honour and the quartet seem to be beside themselves that they’ve nabbed a spot as the only opening act for tonight’s headliners. They’re having a fucking blast as they work through their set. Even though they’re in front of such an excitable crowd, Shakeup’s energy reverberates throughout the room and raises the stakes of stokedness.

But that’s nothing compared to the enthusiasm Billy Talent front man Benjamin Kowalewicz is capable of extracting from the pit. It’s a thing of wonder, these are people who have probably been going out to shows for a decade or so, where’s the cynicism?

Billy Talent // Photo: Matt Warrell

Where are the people hanging by the bar with their arms crossed? When Kowalewicz mentions in passing it’s bassist Jon Gallant’s birthday the pit earnestly strikes up Happy Birthday without prompting. What’s more, every snippet of lame banter lands. When’s the last time you’ve seen a room of over 25s collectively appreciate anything? The charm of Billy Talent is undeniable, as is the potency of songs like This Suffering and Prisoners of Today. But tonight is far from a ‘shut up and play the hits’ type affair. Even as the band work through cuts off Afraid of Heights (but, ya’know, not the Wavves album) the room bubbles with excitement.

Hott Lixx // Photo: Matt Warrell

Tonight Billy Talent seem like the most rarefied form of legacy acts, not the kind that plays the songs from an audience’s youth, but a band with the charisma and, yes I absolutely have to, talent to transport an entire crowd back to that time when live music didn’t mostly feel like a chore. Cuts like Devil in a Midnight Mass and Try Honesty feel like the fountain of youth with more power chords, and by the time Billy Talent finish up there’s not a face in the venue spared from having a shit-eating grin plastered across it.

Ghost Ship // Photo: Matt Warrell

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Remaining Billy Talent Australian tour dates

Saturday, 13th August – The Metro, Sydney (All Ages)
Sunday, 14th August – 170 Russell, Melbourne (18+)
Tuesday, 16th August – Fowlers Live, Adelaide (All Ages)
Wednesday 17th August – Capitol, Perth (18+)

Tickets available via Destroy All Lines