By Jase Walker
What an absolute pleasant surprise it is to see a band like Dream State break into Europe on their own headline show and not only that, a date that is (almost) on my doorstep in a great venue like De Helling. Despite a somewhat bumpy ride a short while ago, Dream State are unbroken and stronger than ever with a new album under their belt that Jessie has truly made a statement with, Dream State are ready to take on the world.
On this tour they’ve brought with them another band I adore, Redhook, all the way from Australia and completed a true tour de force of synthy riffy metalcore complete with fierce women at the front. I cannot wait for this to kick off.
The room darkens and the crowd falls deadly silent almost instantly, it’s time for Redhook to kick a bit of arse, Aussie style. Opening with ‘Pyromaniac’ with its catchy as hell chiptune into before smashing out its massive chorus, we are off to the best start. I dunno what is going on over with Australia right now but this approach of fusing electronic elements into aggressive riffs and unstoppable energy is a massive part of it and I just can’t get enough of it!
They’re not wasting any moment with getting the crowd engaged as well, probably more than keenly aware that they’re still fairly new to this hemisphere but making gay while the sun shines. Although they may not have Holding Absence with them, they’re not shying away from playing ‘Dr. Frankenstein’ with a mild apology about their guitarist not quite matching Lucas, I mean the guy’s range is crazy high but he’s done a great job anyway!
I do wish the bass guitar had a bit more grunt to it, especially considering it’s a dingwall. Tonally it’s lovely but the parts where it’s just the bass doing a break come off as a bit weak because there’s very little low end coming through. Also it’s sax time: ‘Soju’ is the song of choice for this though rather than ‘Breaking Up With’ which I would have preferred admittedly but hey, sax time. One of the songs with a more unusual name but with a powerful message, ‘Jabberwocky’ and I can steadily see the crowd becoming more hyped up as the set goes on so I think Redhook have landed well with the early shows.
Interestingly Redhook makes time for a drum solo of sorts to introduce ‘Dead Walk’ which is a brave choice for an opener but as I keep saying about Aussie bands, non-conventional is how they roll. Finishing up with ‘Bad Decisions’ and making good on the song name by requesting a wall of death and standing right in the bloody middle of it, so uh, yeah, that’s one way to end an opening set! Nutters.
Dream State kicks off their set with an introduction from the voice of what I can only describe as ‘The JML guy’ before getting stuck into it, and to my delight, some meaty bass presence. As Jessie mentioned earlier, she’s made a quick apology for feeling a bit under the weather but wasn’t content with letting the crowd down which is a testament to their endurance.
It’s effortless the way Jessie manages to get the crowd to join in by starting a circle pit or waving their arms around ‘Help Myself’ really kicks the crowd hype into overdrive. The band are fantastically animated on stage but Jessie definitely remains the focal point as she projects to the crowd and you can clearly see the emotions passing across her face as she delivers each moment. Dipping back to Primrose Path with ‘Open Windows’, it’s great to see that the audience reaction to both new and old is equally as enthusiastic.
You wouldn’t think they were full of tour ‘flu given the way they’re performing, the adrenaline is in full flow now, both for the band and the crowd. ‘Anxious State Of Mind’ really pushes the front of the audience into full overdrive as they jump up and down to its bouncy rhythm and catchy chorus, seeing the local attendance here giving it their all as I’ve seen crowds do back in Blighty really warms my heart. Jessie puts her hand up in the shape of a U for Utrecht and she doesn’t even need to make a sound, the crowd immediately reacts with the ‘UUUU’ as I’ve seen a few times in this city and its properly cracked me up.
The unmistakable synth intro of ‘Made Up Smile’, my favourite song of theirs, I’m so happy it’s still in the set! Following that up with ‘Hand In Hand’? Love it. Definitely hitting that peak of the set by this point and they’ve got the crowd eating out of their hand, it’s beautiful to see.
Good god, Jessie might be full of tour ‘flu and might have had reservations about getting stuck into the crowd but that absolutely hasn’t deterred her one bit. She’s in the middle of the crowd as we hit the end of the set prior to the encore, absolute trooper. Normally most encores usually have a bit of a longer break but I can imagine if they’re feeling a bit rough it’s probably better to keep that brief and power through on the adrenaline.
We’re at the finale of the show sadly but it’s time to hit ‘Taunt Me’ which formally announced the new formation of Dream State and it’s clearly a hit, it does go hard as fuck mind. And finally, ‘Primrose’, another one of the massive bangers from their first album and this shows that despite Dream State having two distinct eras, they’re not afraid to acknowledge it and smash it.
Dream State are going strong and truly in their stride with the new album and have even more to come in the pipeline very soon, I cannot wait to see them again and again.
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