Northlane open the show in one of the best ways possible, they hit us straight up with the biggest release from Mesmer the huge sounding Colourwave. I say it was the best way possible not just because the song is so fantastic but the use of stage lighting would become for me a focal point of tonight’s show, just seeing them up there awash in colours the band themselves looked like mere shadows on a stage, dancing in the light, putting out a sound that vocally pierces the room and is almost ethereal in nature as it plays off the Enmore walls. And the band, man these guys just sounded tight, the heavy churning of guitars mixed into the solid pounding of drums I could feel the ground shake beneath me from the instruments and the movement of the crowd.
Northlane would continue to do nothing but impress with the rest of their set and ordinarily you find me up close to the action, generally stage left, but tonight I took a step back a huge one in fact. I stood up the back and just admired the stage show with all the lights, it was captivating, and because there is no bad sound inside the Enmore it still sounded fantastic. Being up the back also gave me a chance to witness first hand all the pit goer’s exoduses as they would go from over the barrier to up the back for water and then a space to catch their breath, you could see the exhaustion in their bodies and the excitement on their faces, it was an indication of just how intense things were up front in the pit.
Being that it is the Mesmer World Tour it comes as no surprise that tonight’s set list featured more songs from that album than any other Northlane one. I mentioned Colourwave got things started, then in the middle, we heard tracks Citizen, Intuition and Solar and closing out the whole set was Paragon. All these new tracks sounded great and were well received by the crowd and the ending of the show with Paragon was just absolutely astounding. But you must hand it to favourites like Rot, Worldeater, Dreamflux and Weightless, these are the tracks that we love to hear and have been going off to, since they first were played to our ears at previous live performances.
I swear Northlane have been killing it all year long, from the very start of 2017 as I watched on YouTube their UNIFY set, to when I caught them in May as part of the Intuition Tour, tonight’s performance just stepped it up a notch in my opinion. Other bands on the scene take note, Northlane have come out guns a blazing and are now cementing themselves as the nation’s best live act and hard-core band. I cannot wait to see what 2018 brings from these guys and the rest of our nation’s talent, as for now the bar has been set by Northlane and it’s time for others to match it or raise it, what a night.
Review – Chad
