THORNHILL - Live in Brisbane
BODIES Everywhere In Brisbane!
Written by Tom Wilson
Photographed by: Reece Trudgen
This is probably the last time you’re going to see THORNHILL at The Tivoli. Tonight isn’t just sold out. The line for THORNHILL’s merch curls around the entire venue, and the excitement to see them is fever pitch. I can see them comfortably selling out the Fortitude Valley Music Hall at this rate.
Opening tonight are HEAVENSGATE, who appear on Google right next to the Heaven’s Gate cult, who I am old enough to remember committing mass suicide in the late 90s so they could hitch a ride on a passing comet (as you do). Fortunately, it seems like this HEAVENSGATE is planning on sticking around, comets be damned, and it’s a good thing too, because their pounding metalcore goes down a treat, with a pit breaking out almost immediately and every neck at the Tivoli at the mercy of their snare drum.
Pictured: HEAVENSGATE
The Tivoli has a guard posted on the stairs leading up to the mezzanine, and whenever they see a crowdsurfer pop up, they put a flashlight beam on them to help the guards on the barrier see them and get ready to catch. The light coming from the side creates an eerie visual of people floating in the darkness, like a piece of driftwood atop churning ocean waves, and that ocean gets pretty damn choppy as Japanese wrecking crew PALEDUSK kick off. A fusion of bludgeoning metalcore and EDM played by people who look like they’ve just snorted a line of pre-workout and chased it with a Red Bull, PALEDUSK are energy personified – their guitarist whirling about the stage like LIMP BIZKIT’s Wes Borland as crowdsurfers tumble across the pit. Sense last witnessed them on our shores supporting OCEAN GROVE, and they’re only getting better. Their headlining shows must be incredible.
Pictured: PALEDUSK
When you’re an Australian band at the level of OCEAN GROVE, THORNHILL or ALPHA WOLF, it pays to have a “go bag” by the door, because you never know when you’ll be called on. THORNHILL famously filled in for ALPHA WOLF at the last Good Things Festival with next to no notice, and now it’s OCEAN GROVE’s turn, who jumped on the tour at the last minute to replace American singer Amira Elfeky, who regrettably had to cancel. Originally a metalcore band, they look a left turn into nu metal revivalism on 2020’s Flip Phone Fantasy, and have become a band that would have absolutely dominated the airwaves in 2001 at the genre’s apex. Walking out to the malevolent hip-hop beat of OG FOREVER and the roar of the crowd, they plunge into Cell Division, the opening track off their 2024 album Oddworld, and crowdsurfers are hurled into the air like confetti as the pit explodes. Oozing confidence and charisma, Dale Tanner is a magnetic frontman, but proves himself equally capable on the thick strings as he swaps out with bassist Twiggy, who takes the mic and leads us through an epic rendition of RAINDROP, before set fixture JUNKIE$ brings the house down.
Pictured: OCEAN GROVE
Thornhill tricked me.
I was a child of nu metal, so in 2005 when jeans started shrinking, fringes started growing and band names turned into sentences, I decided that what they called “metalcore” just wasn’t for me. Almost twenty years later, I was in the army, and was locked down on base during the height of COVID with nothing to do except articles for Sense. It was then that I opened a fateful email about a band from Melbourne called THORNHILL, and their dark, romantic new single Arkangel. From the first note, I was hooked. The downtuned guitar, the pounding drums, Jacob Charlton’s romantic croon – this had more in common with industrial rockers STABBING WESTWARD than it did with BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE or any band I had associated with the term “metalcore” up to that point. From there, the floodgates opened, and I hurled myself into bands like ALPHA WOLF and OCEAN GROVE, and have been lucky enough to have seen each of those bands multiple times post-pandemic. Less than three years after I first heard the name THORNHILL, I found myself on the ARIA voting body for the heavy music award, and I was happy to see my #1 pick Bodies take home the award, because it’s a terrific album. That’s a good thing too, because it is the main focus tonight, and as THORNHILL take to the stage they fuel the crowd with DIESEL and follow it up with a deadly Revolver, before new track Mercia finishes with a devastating djent pounding reminiscent of MESHUGGAH. The Dark Pool loyalists might be left grumbling after tonight’s set which focuses more on the last two albums, but they aren’t forgotten about entirely – the one-two punch of Nurture and Lily & The Moon seeing Jacob’s croon stretching out over our heads to the cheering mezzanine above.
Pictured: THORNHILL
Whether it’s their music, their clothes, their videos or their live show, THORNHILL have excellent taste and a penchant for the dramatic, and whoever is in charge of the lighting tonight deserves a medal. The stage goes dark and we hear the sound of falling rain and distant thunder, as strobes flash through the smoke machine to simulate lightening, before they drop the hammer on Arkangel, and the crowd is whipped into hysterics. The time-honoured tradition of doing the AMON AMARTH rowboat to inappropriate songs continues tonight, and as the band play a slower song, Jacob is too much of a professional to get thrown by half the crowd sitting on their arses yelling “ROW”. Instead of encore peekaboo, they tell us that they’ve got two left, and the sold out Tivoli crowd gives everything they have left for Obsession and the stunning nerv. I can’t tell you exactly where THORNHILL go from here, but I can tell you that it’s going to be big, and very, very loud. Huge thanks to the Tiv and the team at Destroy All Lines for having us, and mad respect for photographer Reece jumping on board at the last minute! FULL GALLERY HERE
Pictured: THORNHILL Crowd