Future Static - Gig Review 10th December @ Northcote Social Club, Melbourne, VIC

Future Static
Northcote Social Club, Melbourne
Saturday, 10th December 2022
Supports: Revoid, The Motion Below and Silver Fang

It’s 8pm on a balmy Melbourne early summer evening, and Melbourne crowds are fulfilling their generally well-deserved reputation for showing up early to catch the support acts, the small, intimate NSC bandroom starting to fill nicely. And tonight, we are not disappointed: it’s a bill choc-full of breathtakingly exciting up-and-coming local talent.

Silver Fang commence proceedings in excellent style. This female-fronted four-piece approach their metalcore sound with a desire to be different, to separate themselves from the pack. Frontwoman Stephanie Briffa provides a very different, as well as an eye and ear-catching focal point with her wild and distinctive look, even wilder vocal histrionics and zesty stage presence. She switches up from insane screams to sweet melodic cleans with passion and practised ease, and the band locks in nicely behind her, driven by the very physical and theatrical playing of drummer Sarah Cretu.

Stylistically, their nifty use of sequencers adds a powerful gothy/symphy wash to their sound, their quirky songs get kinda poppy at times, and these elements help set them apart from the cookie-cutter pack. Add in a highly energised stage performance and you have yourself a damn promising package. Astonishing to note that this band has only been around since August (yes, August this year)! The mind fairly boggles as to what they can become.

The Motion Below explode onto the stage next with an indefinable sound and style and a ton of energy. ‘Theatrical heavy pop’ might cover things to some extent, since their songs are nice and accessible but still tend to get brutal at times, their choruses anthemic, their grooves driving and their breakdowns crushing. If you crossed My Chemical Romance with heavy modern metalcore, you might start to get the picture. Whatever the case, this band are highly visually and aurally entertaining and have immense promise as well.

Essentially, this band has three lead singers, a sometimes-unhinged frontman and both guitarists (this band has no bass guitar) all sharing lead vocal duties, which adds real spark and pizazz to their performance, and this three-way tradeoff ensures the band is extremely strong and dynamic vocally.

This band has been around for six years now, and appear to really be finding themselves, locking into their groove and ready to make their mark, musically and live performance-wise.

Brisbane’s Revoid bring things back to the straight and narrow to some extent, with a slightly more traditional metalcore style. That said, they still inject a little moodiness and ambience of their own into the full-throttle -core sound, lending things their own unique touch. Adding to the more conventional flavour, frontman Dale Dudeson handles virtually all the dirties and cleans himself, and his powerhouse performance ignites the crowd. He even calls for and inspires a wall of death, which erupts briefly in the confines of the NSC bandroom’s floor.

The band locks in tight as a fist behind him, the sequencers add a welcome wash of synthy goodness to their sound, and Revoid go off, giving the NSC crowd a blistering set full of energy and dynamics to remember.

There is a buzz around Melbourne’s Future Static, the sound and feel of something very special brewing, and tonight a packed and very fortunate NSC crowd find out exactly why. In the washup of this band’s career, whether that be in two years or twenty-two years, we may look back on this show as a real ‘red-letter’ moment, a real watershed gig, where they truly announced their arrival.

Will that actually be the case? Only time will tell. But they certainly play their part. Sometimes a buzz is ill-deserved, sometimes it is absolutely appropriate. This band falls fairly and squarely into the latter category.

Right from the get-go, the energy pouring like a tsunami from the stage while this band is playing (maybe I should say unleashing) is almost overwhelming. Much of this centres around the pint-sized sledgehammer of a frontwoman Amariah Cook. Words can do little justice to her performance. She comes onto the stage and simply explodes, her insane banshee screeches, sweet melodic cleans and devastating stage presence all equally compelling. You cannot peel your eyes or ears away from her.

She even dives into the crowd for an impromptu mosh at one stage (as does guitarist Ryan Qualizza later on when his guitar ‘fucks up’), sending the punters at the front into a frenzy, her tiny but powerful form disappearing into the crush before appearing again, unscathed, a few moments later.

All that said, this band is no one-woman show: the band members around her are also choc-full of confidence, swagger and infectious exuberance, and the overall picture is that of a depth charge, a tinder box about to go off, an aural and visual explosion of seismic proportions. Tonight’s set is 50 minutes of pure, blazing rock fury, passion and power, interspersed with sweet moments of dynamics and light and shade (Cook’s mid-late set acoustic interlude is just an absolute treat, although over way too quickly), and the crowd stands there stunned, minds blown (I know mine is).

There is a massive future awaiting this band, a future full of clarity and glory rather than static, if they play their cards right. Keep your eyes and ears firmly planted on Future Static. If there is any justice in the music industry (admittedly a dicey prospect at best), this band is about to erupt.

Catch our interview with the band in Episode 2 of Wall of Sound TV!

Gig Review By – Rod Whitfield

Header Photo by Andrew Bromley