Movements (USA) Australian Tour 2018 2/4 – Melbourne (18+)

For those of you only tuning in now, this is part 2 of 4, check out part 1 here to get the full context.

This cold Saturday night couldn’t start off any better than with the local not-so-newcomers, Better Half. Kicking off to a strong start, they played one of the tracks off of their latest release called ‘Fixate’, which if you haven’t heard it before, has one of catchiest damn choruses going around! As you always see at Melbourne shows featuring Better Half, the crowd was fully engaged, singing along and pulling sneaky mic grabs here and there. As they have been for the past while, they closed with ‘Rest Your Head’, a melancholic anthem with the memorable “Everything withers and everything dies” chorus line that gets stuck in your head for days after. I really wish this band could release some more material though, because the last 4 times I’ve seen them it has more or less been the exact same set-list, which while being an inevitability, is the only real criticism I can give them for their live show. Really impressive stuff from this group of talented young musicians.

Now as I’ve already written about Ambleside, I’ll keep this pretty brief, as I will for the other supports from here on out. For a further in-depth read about these bands, check part 1 of this series out. Now that’s out of the way, the 5 piece started strong and played a great set from start to finish. Melbourne crowds generally enjoy this band quite a bit, but never really as much as Adelaide does unfortunately. Hopefully with the new music coming from this young bunch of musicians that can change though! Finishing up again with 'Blur’ and 'Wash Away', there’s no doubt that the crowd was well and truly warmed up by Ambleside’s performance that night. Very impressive stuff.

Eat Your Heart Out played next to a warm reception. It seemed there are clearly more Eat Your Heart Out fans in Melbourne than in Adelaide, which was obvious with how many more faces in the crowd were singing and dancing along. Unfortunately, early on in the first couple songs the lead guitarists’ strap broke leading to a rough delivery of that one song, but I think we can give him a pass, especially considering his speedy work flying back stage in between songs and lining up a borrowed axe! Luckily he didn’t borrow fellow guitarist Andrew Anderson, as just like in Adelaide, he was making sure work of bloodying up both his guitar and shirt; not sure if tough or gross to be honest. The vocal performance this time around was a little weaker admittedly, but overall this band still killed it with great stage performance and great energy from start to finish getting ready to start

The room was packed at this point, and Movements were checking sound. Looking around the room, everyone was chatting in eager anticipation, excited to see the Californian 4 piece in action. Once again opening with ‘Third Degree’, it was clear that last night’s nerves were no longer present as the band was brimming with confidence this time around (It probably helped that it was a sold out show!). Once again, the band worked through a collection of their best work from both the EP and the album, although it is at this point that I’d like to make an important note about how disappointed I was with some of the Melbourne audience that night.

Now I don’t know if this individual will end up reading this, but I’m sure everyone that attended will remember the young lady with the Mohawk that felt the need to climb on stage and just stay there for extended periods of time, so blatantly so that Patrick Miranda had to usher her off the stage mid performance. That wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the fact that this behaviour was repeated constantly over the first half of the set, which shows an immense lack of social awareness and consideration for not only the patrons of the performance that night, but also for the artists themselves. This was not a sole offender and I’m not looking for a witch hunt, but this was simply the main instigator of such behaviour which led to others following suit, putting a real dampener on the whole event and clearly frustrating the artists, as the look on their faces was one of disheartened disapproval.

I want to make something very clear: for an international band, there is VERY little to gain from coming to Australia, and behaviour like this will do NOBODY any favours when it comes to getting your next favourite international band onto our shores. If you ever see your friends, or even acquaintances participating in this kind of behaviour, be sure to let them know it’s not on because this kind of bullshit is unacceptable. Moving on, the band had a good attitude about it all, pushing on through the self-absorbed behaviours to put on a fantastic show. The rest of the crowd was very receptive to this, going nuts, hanging from the ceiling, screaming along to every word. Half way through the show, Patrick took a moment to thank the audience for attending, expressing the band’s gratitude to not only be able to play in Melbourne, but also that this was in fact their first sold out Australian show, especially as they were headlining this tour. “This is all we have ever wanted to do, so thank you for allowing us to do this” Miranda said to the audience, a tear in his eye. The band then went on to perform the rest of their set, closing with 'Daylily' just as they had in Adelaide. After walking off stage, the crowd began to chant, hungry for an encore, but the band didn’t return to the stage immediately. In my mind, I half thought that they might not come out due to the somewhat negative experience they had endured, but to everyone’s relief, the band returned to sing their debut hit single 'Protection'. Just like in Adelaide, the crowd went absolutely nuts, singing every word at the top of their lungs, but also just like Adelaide, were caught off guard by Miranda’s bastardization of “I overthink too much” which saw a few hearty chuckles in the back of the venue. Upon conclusion, the band thanked the audience and left to the green room, leaving everyone to filter out to the streets with a smile on their faces and a sweat-soaked shirt on their backs.

All things considered, the night was a hell of a lot of fun and definitely one for the audience to remember. We hope that we’ll see the band again in Melbourne soon!

FYI to anyone wondering, it seems the Movements set-list for every show on this tour is the same as was listed in the last instalment of this series.

Be sure to keep an eye out for the next instalment of this series where I give the rundown on what happened at the all-ages show in Melbourne!

#BetterHalf #Ambleside #Movements #EatYourHeartOut