Fastrack/Burn Collect
Enigma Bar – Adelaide
3rd September 2011

By Shayne Bishop

The venue is located on one of the busiest streets in Adelaide, so I had grand visions of a massive crowd, chanting along to their home town headliners Burn Collect, and Melbourne’s Fastrack, who have quite a following in Adelaide.  Instead we got a mediocre crowd that went from one extreme to another.  While the opening act, The Middle Man, played their set most of the punters were yet to arrive.  I had never heard of them before, but I was quite impressed.  The early moments of their set were plagued by problems when vocalist/guitarist Lee Van Pamelan broke a string in the first song, and ended up playing the remainder of their set on Brad Marr’s (Fastrack) Flying V, but otherwise a very impressive set, with the highlight being a cover of Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”.

Next up was another Adelaide native, Tabula Rasa.  Their particular brand of alternative rock would not normally be my preference, but I definitely found a lot to like about this band.  A heavy Foo Fighters influence was felt throughout their set, and at times I could have sworn I was hearing Godsmack.   By this stage there was more of a crowd, but being in a venue that had multiple rooms on offer, most people seemed to be popping in and out.

Fastrack, much like myself, must have had very little sleep over this tour of Adelaide, but that didn’t stop them from electrifying the crowd once again.  Ben Sarros and Simon Klaaysen provide a thundering rhythm section, while the rhythm guitar of Brad Marr and lead of Jimmy Dee are perfection.  Just like the previous night, all of the tracks from the EP were present, as well as their fabulous version of The Living Ends “Prisoner of Society”.  The crowd had finally woken up, and during the aforementioned “Prisoner of Society” and the EP tracks “Steal the Show”, “Generation Riot” and “Gonna Get You” we could actually feel the floor of our upstairs room flex.  Fastrack are simply amazing to witness live, and I highly recommend them to one and all.

The final band of the evening was Adelaide’s Burn Collect.  This was their final gig for a while, as they’re planning to hit the studio to follow up their 2010BC EP which was recorded way back in 2009.  With this in mind, Burn Collect were out to impress, and that is exactly what they did.  Their style of music is alternative meets metal with more than just a hint of punk.  The band put on a brilliant one hour set, featuring all of the tracks from the EP, plus the follow up single “Suicide Blues” (also recorded back in 2009).  The highlights of the came in the form of 3 tracks that I had not heard yet - “Factory”, “Fuck” and “The Drive”  (Dedicated on the night to myself and Andrew from The Hard Rock Show, for the drive that we made to get there.)