Support band: Stepson
Manning Bar, Sydney University, Camperdown.
Saturday, the 6th of September.
American progressive soul punk band letlive recently embarked on a tour known as the “sincerely yours” tour across Europe, Australia, and the United States. Having reunited recently, for a proper farewell jaunt, the band was intent on delving into their celebrated back catalogue with their unique brand of punk energy fused with rock and funk stylings, and based on the turn out, it was evident the band had made an impact on previous tours to Australia several years back. The PA cranked out a series of mashups between Metallica and Men at Work, or Van Halen and pop artists, that thankfully left the guitar solos intact. However, a quick scan of the room indicated any lifelong appreciation from letlive fans of the late great Edward was probably after the fact.
Brisbane based melodic hardcore band Stepson, had a small false start as a laptop with an introductory track crashed. After some ironing out of said technical issues, they proceeded to reboot the start of their set, as their intended ominous electronica introduction ripped through the venue PA. Beanie sporting frontman, Brock Alan Conry announced, ‘let’s f**king get amongst it,’ and they were off, launching into angst ridden track, “Come With Me”.
Heavy riffage ensued from the twin guitar band, with backing vocals from bassist Jayden Ridley and co-guitarist Nickolas Sean Farr. Drummer Jordan McDonald smashed his kit with intensity, walloping cymbals, as the octave drone guitar figures worked alongside the screaming harsh vocals.
Second track, “Deeper Sleep” from their 2021 debut studio album Help Me, Help You release started with an arpeggiated shuffle feel that soon morphed into a heavier track, with some melodic backing vocals, and initial handclaps from the stage, as Conry moved between leaning into the foldback wedge, or singing to his microphone in its stand, near the stage drum riser. The content became noticeably heavier with the initially sedate sounding “The Entire History of You”, which soon saw harsh vocals, screams, and wide guitar strums on chords from Farr as fellow guitarist Nick Bennett delved into higher register parts, pick slides, and a slew of low-end riffs, to then end on a slow, chorus filled guitar figure.
The pace settled a tad with “Discover Lonely” which allowed some fills within a more open drumming figure, and higher register vocals, and the use of backing tracks was evident in parts to flesh out the barrage, against further climbing octave guitar lines. Recently released, heavier track, “Venom” was blasted out with suitable ferocity, as Ridley spun around, dodging their band photographer who ventured onto the stage, or kept whipping along the front of stage barrier dropping a volley of flashes.
To conclude their set, “Eraser” let the band play with arrangements as backing tracks mixed with some rhythmic finger tapped passages from Bennett against the chordal approach of Farr’s guitar style, with more vocal screaming. It was a short, sharp, 25-minute opening set, and seemed to go over pretty well with the growing audience.
A quick changeover cleared the stage of any equipment clutter, with a simple black cloth backdrop, a twin drum riser for a single bass drum kit, and a few instrument speaker cabinets, with minimalist, sturdy guitar controller boards. It needed to be sparse as this last round of shows from letlive for Australia promised to dip into an energy blast that was unbridled. Sure enough, as guitarists Jean Nascimentio and Jeff Sahyoun took up their positions, facing speaker cabinets to extract some feedback sustain from their howling guitars as “Le Prologue” set up proceedings. New touring members of bassist Skyler Acord and drummer Sage Webber were locked into the same demolition game plan. Wearing smart casual unbuttoned black shirt and pants, frontman force of nature Jason Butler bounded on stage, and with minimal fuss, the band let rip on “The Sick, Sick, 6.8 Billion” with some shaker work from Nascimentio, and a variety of explosive uses of water bottles from Butler. Sahyoun scraped his microphone over the guitar strings of his locked bridge Edward Van Halen Music Man guitar as Butler threw the microphone into the air to catch it again, as the audience stage divers got to work.
Running on the spot, or around the small stage, and just generally bouncing, Sahyoun was a ball of energy that Butler could easily match. Locking into the riff work of “Renegade 86′”, another track from Fake History, Sahyoun was briefly down on one knee, intensely focused on his precision rhythm playing, as Nascimentio’s flourishes added some icing on the song’s cake, with Butler spinning about, now down to a singlet, and starting to break a sweat. A brief greeting from Butler, and it was into “The Dope Beat” from The Blackest Beautiful, with Nascimentio starting off the opening riff, alongside some drum work, before Sahyoun joined in with an open chorus guitar sound. “Casino Columbus” and “Banshee (Ghost Fame)” followed, with circle pits breaking out, audience singalongs aplenty, and Butler standing at the stage front, between foldback wedges, to occasionally cup the microphone with his hand.
Butler shared some deeper thoughts with the audience, revealing his ongoing works through rebuilding relationships, offering admissions of some impacts coming from self-inflicted activities, adding impetus to “Muther”, which included arpeggiated chordal work from Nascimentio. By way of discussing the state of his Los Angeles background, he encouraged the audience to find their sense of resistance to totalitarian rule, adding gravitas to a ferocious delivery of “Good Mourning, America” from the If I’m the Devil… album. A rendition of “Dreamer’s Disease” provided a similarly powerful performance, with Butler climbing under the side of drum riser, to use the hanging cloth backdrop as a cape.
As Sahyoun briefly used a varnished maple Stratocaster styled Charvel model guitar, his muted guitar rhythm figures gave “Pheromone Cvlt” from The Blackest Beautiful, a tighter delivery. Now shirtless, exposing his heavily tattooed torso, Butler added some insane energy to “27 Club”, also from The Blackest Beautiful, by acquiring a side of stage folding table, to use as a slight incline ramp from stage to stage barrier, for a closely monitored running stage dive into the audience, with his microphone. Butler took off his shoes and socks to then take a running jump, whereby the elated audience caught him, and held him up allowing a singing crowd surf back the stage. Back on the stage, Butler was in Iggy Pop style performance mode, keeled over, and then writhing on his back, after hurling out water bottle contents, and emoting with vocal power as the lighting rig set off a strobe effect, and then with letlive completing the main set, instrument feedback filled the venue.
The encore saw Butler put his shoes back on, to offer a small monologue on the deeper meanings behind the lyrics of “I’ve Learned to Love Myself”, the second track aired tonight from the If I’m the Devil… album. It was an intense performance, as more audience members took to crowd surfing over the stage barrier, keeping the security staff, and other staff ring-ins unusually busy this evening. More dual muted guitar riffs ensued, including some brief finger picked work from Sahyoun, as the set was closed out with “Empty Elvis”, during which Butler decided to climb up on two front of stage fold back wedges, and stacked them vertically, somewhat precariously, as the band’s guitar tech, and venue staff valiantly stabilised the impromptu structure.
Atop the wedges, Butler sang and blew a kiss to the audience, then returned to the stage, much to the relief of staging crew. Finishing the set with “Day 54”, the energy continued to burn, as the audience sang back the lyrics with enthusiasm, and as the track concluded, Butler waved goodbye, and dropped the microphone, with the thud echoing over the PA, as the band left the stage with a true, ‘job done’ punk rock work ethic.
Tonight, letlive met the hype, and delivered one of the more intense shows to be experienced at a club level in a long time. They farewelled their Sydney fans in truly epic fashion. It was really something genuinely special from letlive. A show that delivered on all counts and far exceeded expectations.
Set List:
Le Prologue
The Sick, Sick, 6.8 Billion
Renegade 86′
The Dope Beat
Casino Columbus
Banshee (Ghost Fame)
Muther
Good Mourning, America
Dreamer’s Disease
Pheromone Cvlt
27 Club
Encore:
I’ve Learned to Love Myself
Empty Elvis
Day 54.