MACHINE HEAD
Astor Theatre - Perth, Australia
June 29th 2015
Bay area legends Machine Head announced a very cool tour for Australia with "An Evening With Machine Head" which implies that it's nothing but the headliners for the entire night. Anyone who has been to one of these kinds of shows knows that it's a real treat to get so much attention for the band without the distrations of support acts. What we had on the final show on the completely sold out Australian tour in Perth was 2 and a half hours of pure, unadulterated metal at it's best and what better band to deliver such pummeling music than Machne Head.
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The packed crowd arrived late but when it did, it was a glorious site to see as a sold out show in Perth is a rarity, particularly metal shows. The late crowd was offset by a delayed start to the show but by 9pm, things kicked off with "Imperium" off the now classic "Through The Ashes Of Empires". The energy was high, the crowd was in the zone immediately and the drums from Dave McClains kit was smashing the room. It was pretty much an extended setlist of mainly expected, classic tracks with a few surprises thrown in the mix. "The Blackening got it's fair share in the mix as it has been since it's release 8 years ago. Not surprising given it truly is not only one of Machine Head's best albums but one of the greatest metal albums of the last 20 years, period. "Beautiful Morning" is mesmerizing with it's awesome intro while "Aesthetics Of Hate" towards the end of the set is still one of the band's finest songs to date.
It's difficult to really paint a true picture of the whole event as it was literally one classic song after another but I will say, the newer material off their latest album "Bloodstone & Diamonds" was fantastic, "Killers & Kings" making it's way in midway while the darker, moodier "Sail Into The Black" was a breather from all the thrashier stuff before it. Frontman Rob Flynn chatted to the audience before the latter about being in a metal band and coming to Perth and Australia over the years. It was a pretty heartfelt speech and one that touched everyone in the audience.
But as far as the rest of the show is concerned, every album was hit upon. From the very first album, the ultimate classic 1994 epic "Burn My Eyes" with "Davidian" being one of the absolute highlights, to the challenging "The Burning Red" album all the way to "Unto The Locust". Everything was covered, a real showcase of the entire back catalogue of the band from Northern California. The only downside was Robbs'vocals were a little low in the mix at times but that's a petty problem when compared to the sheer positives that came out of not only the performance and the crowd but the sound as well. The old Astor Theatre, while not necessarily built for a metal show, did well to put out a decent sound. An evening with... is such a great idea and hopefully we can see more bands doing it, despite Robb saying that everyone was opposed to the band even doing it in the first place. A completely sold out tour and a damn fine performance from the band for 2 and a half hours straight pretty much answers any doubts about that.
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Review by Andrew "Schizodeluxe" Massie