Drown This City - Gig Review 3rd August @ Crowbar, Brisbane

Drown This City
Crowbar, Brisbane QLD
August 3rd, 2019
Supports: Sleep Talk, Whatever, Forever, and Malibu Stacy
Who doesn't love a good AM//PM Emo Night at Crowbar every once in a while? A chance to relive our younger years without the hair/eyeliner/attitudes of old with like-minded people? Yes, please. Upstairs, we had emotional singing to old songs, and downstairs featured Drown This City on celebrating the release of their EP Alpha // Survivor.
Malibu Stacy kicked off the night with their rowdy country boy vibe that was backed up by the guitarist wearing footy shorts and revealing his thigh tatts. It was laid back, good old pop punk that they played and bodies were moving. The crowd got really into the second band of the night Whatever, Forever and despite suffering from some mic issues, they powered through. There was a bit too much going on sonically and the melodies were hard to follow but Whatever, Forever opened the pit and had the crowd eating out of their hands. They ended on 'Bridges' from their release last year and walked off on a high.
But Sleep Talk actually stole the show, and the crowd was there for it with the beer flowing and the drunk girls dancing. They played hits from their latest album Everything In Colour (our review here) and it was an audible step up from the previous two bands. These Adelaide fellas are tight, seasoned musicians and it showed in the way they moved through their set and had the crowd moshing without even amping them up.
There was one guy in particular who had long, curly hair that almost bounced up and down on its own it was so light and voluminous. And when he headbanged his hair resembled a pom pom being shaken; he was having a good time, and everyone else was having a good time watching him. Crowd favourites were 'Slowfade', 'New Tradition' and basically every song played. It was good stuff.
When Drown This City stepped up they had a job to build the crowd back to capacity as people would migrate upstairs for the emo tunes in between bands. A few songs in and the crowd filled out a bit more, but not quite as much as when Sleep Talk had been playing.
Vocalist Alex Reade really brought the punchy, aggressive energy to the fans and backed by bassist Matthew Bean they both made for some powerful choruses. The set featured their latest EP Alpha // Survivor pretty heavily (our review here too) and songs like 'Stay Broken', 'In Your Image' and 'Love Makes Cowards Of Us All' went down super well.
I have to say though, there was a lot of calling out for shoeys. And not even from the crowd, but Alex! Apparently the band were carrying this baby shoe around on tour with them and getting someone from the crowd to do a shoey with it at each show. Not everyone in the crowd was super keen for it though, maybe the shoey craze is actually dying out? Let's hope so.
Anyway, Drown This City is a powerful band at the moment, and the songs off their new EP live are aggressive and exciting.
Review by Ebony Story
Revisit Drown This City frontwoman Alex Reade co-hosting our Wall of Sund: Up Against The Wall podcast right here
