By Jase Walker
Where the fuck has the year gone? It’s already May and it’s a stacked month with festival season looming. Anyway, never mind my grumbling about my loose grip on time, it’s time for some fun bouncy music courtesy of loud Aussies, RedHook.
Hot off the back of their support slot with the lovely lot in Dream State which I was privileged to catch in Utrecht last year, RedHook are doing their own headlining stomp around Europe. The ÜK leg had my buds in Defences supporting them and for the EÜ leg Comastatic are filling the support slot. They’re a name I’ve seen about but never got round to checking them out fully so it’ll be a good introduction to these in a bit.
Comastatic get things going with a mix of dialogue about nuclear war and electronic bleeps before the singer runs up to jump on the stage and comes close to stacking it instead. Anyway, were off and I can see why these are running as support on this leg as they’ve got a similar vibe to RedHook with their use of intense synths mixed with big riffs.
A really fun live show with a big stage presence that is a great indicator of a band that’s worked super hard on their live performance and it’s clearly coming across well to the crowd here. I do feel like the lack of a live bass player hurts their sound a bit mind. There’s a good bit of variation here including one song that sounded a bit like Craig David era garage at one point. By the midpoint their singers obviously been dying to take his shirt off because what is a live music show without a bit of a thirst trap eh?
Legitimately though these have been a pretty surprising start to the show tonight, a really fun take on the current wave of pop-oriented metalcore that’s championed by the likes of Caskets and Dayseeker. Comastatic aren’t keen on the idea of just getting up, doing their set and buggering off, they’re here to put all of their energy into winning people over while having a great time too. Being an opener for a two-band tour can often be a super tough job, especially when the headliner is so much more prominent.
Comastatic have done a fantastic job of getting the crowd on their side and vibing along with them. Great show lads.
After a run through some of the biggest classic metal bangers since the start of the millennia, it’s time for RedHook to get things started and smash their headline set out. ‘Bomb.com’ is the right way to get this party started and the crowd’s immediately jumping around like they’ve waited all year for this moment.
I feel like I’ve been waiting for too long to finally see a headline set from these too though, it’s not always easy for Australians to do something like this so I’m going to get my fill tonight! I think this is probably the first band I’ve seen using a bubble machine as part of the production and hilariously seems to keep distracting their singer throughout the show. Prior to ‘Pyromaniac’, their singer dips out for a quick costume change for a sort of hazmat suit with a sort of hand puppet thing which gets huge cheers from the crowd when she shows it.
‘Off With Your Head’ finally breaks the ice and the crowd erupts into a massive mosh pit and in a room of this size, it’s very in your face regardless of where you’re standing. The singer for Comastatic jumps up on stage to sing ‘Imposter’ along with RedHook and everyone is lapping this up by now, I love seeing this sort of stuff because the best thing about live shows is the unique experience of bands just fucking about and having a great time.
Prior to ‘Soju’ they explain that they’ve been getting fans up to sing the song with them and it turns out we’ve got a fan from Spain who’s travelled here for this tour and he’s gonna sing it along with the band! He knows the words but singing chops, maybe not, but who cares? The man took the mic and just let rip and you can’t deny that it was damn good fun.
Again, despite the unusual name of ‘Jabberwocky’, this song carries a lot of emotional weight but is truly an incredible song also. Their singer subtly weaves through the crowd to sing in the bar for ‘Dead Walk’ while the band distracts everyone, another costume change to a bloodied dress and teeth smeared red. I’m a real sucker for theatrics at music shows and RedHook loves a bit of this the same way bands like Ice Nine Kills do and I’d love to see how far they take it.
And finally it’s time to finish with their biggest song of ‘Bad Decisions’, everyone knows the drill and it’s time to make the most of the last song. I feel so bad for their singer since she’s clearly sick as hell but has really pulled through like a trooper. Rather than a wall of death, it’s a wall of hugs but in addition to this their guitarist is constantly messing around with autotune making all sorts of bizarre noises alongside Comastatic joining the stage to jump around and throwing toilet paper everywhere!
What a fantastic end to a super fun set, these Aussies know how to party at a show and this is why I keep coming back to them.