POISON THE WELL: Live In Brisbane
If You Want Peace, Prepare For War
Sunday 14th June 2026
Written by Tom Wilson
Photographed by: Tracy McLaughlan
Taking the opening swing tonight are local bruisers WETWORK, and their thick, heavy riffage and filthy lows see the first pit of the night break out. But it’s not enough, and frontman Lucas lets us know. “Pick it up!” he roars, and pick it up they do. There is a lot of gratitude onstage tonight, and WETWORK are the first band to tell the crowd just how much POISON THE WELL impacted them as teenagers. They show some love for IRON MIND, calling them the best Australian hardcore band of all time, and showcase a bunch of new songs, which clearly go down a treat, because by the end of their set, the pit is a warzone.
An angry, exasperated voice comes over the P.A., ranting about the sorry state of the world, as IRON MIND take the stage. As the feedback wails, the voice gets angrier and angrier, and as his rage hits fever pitch, IRON MIND drop the hammer, sending punters sailing across the pit and launching over each other for a chance to scream into the mic. I’ve never seen any of these bands before, but watching these guys onstage, I can see why WETWORK spoke so highly of them. Tight as a drum and seriously pissed off, they hit like a backhand in the pit. I put myself in mosh retirement last year due to injuries, and even though I’m staying far away from the front, by the end of their set, I still feel like I can taste blood in my mouth.
HAYWIRE take to the stage and announce that they’re going to play our national anthem, before dropping straight into Am I Ever Going To See Your Face Again? As vocalist Austin Sparkman storms the barricade and thrusts out his mic, punters hurdle each other to shout the words “No way / Get fucked / Fuck off”. Summer Nights is a massive gang vocal singalong, and Boston Boot Boys is changed to Brisbane Boot Boys as the punters get their oi on. “Welcome to a HAYWIRE show!” Austin tells us, before someone shouts a request, and he immediately fires back, “Do I look like a fucking jukebox to you? You’re the equivalent of the Banana Man in America, you know that? You just want attention. You just want people to pay attention to you. And that’s fine. You didn’t get it at home? Neither did I – that’s why I’m on a stage in front of all you people.” There’s a tension in the air for a few seconds before everyone laughs it off, and he tells the story of how he came to get sober. He recently celebrated his first year. It’s been eight years since I put down the bottle, so it’s a battle I know well. Nice one, dude.
After the changeover, rap starts pumping through the PA, and heads start nodding to the undeniable beat of GETO BOYS’ classic Still (famously used in the movie Office Space when they beat the shit out of a printer), before POISON THE WELL take to the stage. The roar that greets them falls away as Jeff Moreira begins to croon the opening lines of Tears from the Red classic Botchla, before the band drop the hammer and the pit explodes. Tonight is the end of the tour, but if they’re tired, they hide it well, and Zombies Are Good for Your Health and Slice Paper Wrists see jubilant pit ninjas give each other a lashing. Jeff gets the crowd to raise our hands as the feedback squeals, before the thumping kick drum of Thoroughbreds sees the whole theatre clapping as one.
Tonight’s set is focused on their revered 1999 album The Opposite of December … A Season of Separation, and Jeff introduces 12/23/93 with a simple request: “Let’s get this place fucking moving!” And move they do, hard. My first exposure to POISON THE WELL was seeing the video for Apathy is a Cold Body as a teenager. As a massive DEFTONES fan, I was struck by the balance of metallic crunch and melancholy vocals, and that balance is illustrated perfectly by new track Everything Hurts, which leads us in a massive singalong before hitting us like a sledgehammer. The noise rock opening of Ghostchant triggers pit chaos, and after Parks And What You Meant To Me, Jeff tells us that they’re going to be finishing with two more songs from December…, and I’m a bit crushed that they aren’t going to play Trembling Level, one of my favourite tracks of last year and the first song they’d released since 2009. Ah well. (How often do people go to shows for legendary hardcore bands and wish they played more new stuff? Just me? Fair enough.)
My Mirror No Longer Reflects gets a huge reaction, before members of HAYWIRE emerge onstage with guitars in hand, and as one giant hardcore band they plunge into Nerdy … for about ten seconds before Jeff halts the performance. Something is going down at the front, and it’s only the next day that I find out it’s because someone tried to climb onstage. Sometimes I wonder why there are warning labels on everything, but then I remember that there are people out there who are surprised that they aren’t allowed to stage dive at the Princess Theatre. The situation appears to be resolved, and they restart Nerdy and create a warzone so intense I almost took a video to send to Maddy, Sense’s hardcore correspondent, to let her know that the crew back home haven’t forgotten how to pit. It’s absolute magic.
Check out the full gallery here.