Worldsend Hotel. 14 Nov 2014
It wasn’t too many years ago that I would spend most of my weekend evenings out watching the best that local music had to offer, predominantly hanging out around the heavier end of the spectrum. As I’ve gotten older and my horizons have broadened, I’ve managed to see less local offerings, and at the same time, there have been fewer venues prepared to host a good variety of local talent. There have been mainstays, of course, but there have been plenty of places that have come and gone too. Thankfully, I’ve always kept my eyes out for local shows that might grab my attention, and a free show at one of my favourite haunts, Worldsend, did the trick to drag me out on a warm Friday evening.
Arriving fashionably late, unfortunately I missed the first band of the night, an indigenous metal group called Mism. I say unfortunately, as going by the reports of my fellow metal-heads, these guys were awesome, having a dark Opeth-esque style. I’ll definitely be keeping my eye out for another opportunity to see them!
Raven Black Night was the band that had grabbed my attention and drawn me away from my couch this evening, and I’m very happy to say that their performance made the effort very much worth my while! I’d been a big fan of these guys from years ago, but in recent times, the band has played fewer local gigs, meaning the ones they do play really count. With a few albums under their belt, including an international record deal with Metal Blade, Raven Black Night have come of age and were in fine form for the healthy Worldsend crowd.
Their style hovers around the bluesy side of the metal spectrum, fitting for the dark and broody blues metal of the ’70s, and perfectly up my alley of favourite musical styles. Massive guitar solos, thumping bass and rock steady rhythms made for a great performance, enjoyed by a good crowd mix; including a bunch of enthusiastic Chinese students, dreadlocked metal heads, denim-clad thrash guys, and a sizeable proportion of metal ladies – I tell you, when I was a single man checking out metal shows week after week the metal girls weren’t like those that comes out these days! It’s great to see! The band’s set culminated in a deadly-paced cover of Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’, before coming to a close.
The final act was Hidden Intent, a thrash metal three-piece who were certainly top of their game. I’ve generally not been a massive thrash metal fan, often not getting much into the vocal style, but I must say, Hidden Intent won me over within the first few bars! Sporting smoother vocals than what I was expecting, I was all too happy to take in the technical prowess and speed of the music, and found myself getting right into the swing of things. By this stage of the night, the beer-garden crowd was pretty healthy, with plenty of people up headbanging and dancing away. It was a great vibe, and certainly some fantastic music!
And so ended a great night of live music at a venue that’s made it clear they have a place for live shows. It was nice and loud with a no-holds-barred approach, which suits me fine. If I leave a show and my ears aren’t ringing, then clearly it wasn’t loud enough! I’ve often frequented Worldsend, but now that they’ve done the place up and got a great little space out the back in their funky beer garden for live music, I definitely plan on heading back.
Luke Balzan
When: Closed
Where: Worldsend
Bookings: Closed
