LIVE REVIEW: OCEAN GROVE + CANE HILL + DEFICIT + BLINDER @ THE PRINCESS THEATRE 22/08/26

Words by Cecilia Pattison-Levi Photos Reece Trudgen

The Princess Theatre was at capacity as Ocean Grove brought their genre-busting Oddworld Tour to Brisbane. As the doors opened, the queue already wrapped around the block down past the pub, as fans quickly got scanned and into the venue for the 7:25pm sharp start.

Ocean Grove let the crowd know during their set that, “We have been doing this since 2013...and we have been so lucky”. What they have been doing is bringing “different, musically focused” bands in the metal world together to play and tour. And, with this tour they brought their nu-metal, rap and electronic metalcore experimental sounds along with three other unique heavy metal bands not afraid of trends and willing to sonically experiment: the United States traditional emo-metalcore rockers Cane Hill, hardcore “warzone” purveyors Deficit andalternative heavy rock with dreamcore nu-gazers Blinder.

The night started promptly as there were four band sets to perform and they all had to be given enough time to show their unique style. And, without much fanfare or introduction, Adelaide band Blinder came out onto the stage to perform. They kicked off the night with a much more atmospheric rock sound. Blinder were also unique on another front as they were the only band of the night with female representation and I have to say Ella Phillips was fantastic as her beautiful voice added a distinct quality to her band’s songs and performance.

Blinder are traditionally a four-member group with Will Wright, Ella Phillips, Frankie Wright and Dane Unwin, with an added unknown touring guitarist. The extra band member brought Blinder’s sonic ‘Low-Res’ world to life. The band opened with ‘Chrome’ as the white lights flashed with blue highlights as the voices of Will Wright and Ella Phillips wrapped around each other to harmonise and deliver their unique sound.

Blinder’s use of underlyingglitchy electronica moved into shoegaze territory as the songs ‘480p’, the fabulous airy guitars of the ‘dreamcore’ ballad of ‘Disappear’ and pop-punk nu-gaze blended metal of ‘Shadows’ were performed. The guitarist and vocalist Ella Phillips has a fabulous voice and made the songs come to life.

The last song of their set was ‘Hurting’ and it took a darker, heavy turn with a punk-driven guitar, dark vocal fry melded with shoegaze sounds. The drum and bass samples broke through the hard instrumentation and vocals with the droning call to “rest in peace”, closing the otherworldly set. Blinder will be performing at Big Sound, and if you want to see the new wave of metal, come along and see them.

There was a tight turnaround of 15 minutes as Sydney hardcore band Deficit came out and changed the mood completely. The venue left the white dreamworld of Blinder for the aggressive red and orange world where Deficit brought the “warzone” as they revved up the Brisbane crowd.

The five-piece band Deficit comprising of Nathan Newman, MacLean Ryan, Michael Campbell, Blake Fry and ZakBorg brought a much more aggressive energy to the room. They went ridiculously hard. The hardcore influence coming through fast, fierce and hot (as the singer stripped down a layer every song until the t-shirt was left). The crowd responded as the circle pit started immediately, got sweaty and rowdy and then the walls of death, mosh pit and bouncing followed.

Deficit’s guitarist MacLean Ryan commanded the deathened nu-metalcore sonic world. Their songs incited havoc on the floor as ‘Trailblazers’, FYA’ and‘Deathstyle’ were delivered. Nathan Newman demand of the crowd, “If you know it, sing it! If you don’t then shake your fucking ass”.

The band’s orders to the crowd of: “kill each other” and turn “the place into a fucking blood-zone” were rough but this aggression is part of the hardcore mosh culture and is a mechanism to release frustration safely. They closed out their explosive set with ‘Nothing To Lose’,which blendednu-metal, rap and metalcore in a swirling sonic burst of heaviness.

As the stage was cleared in another 15 minutes of frantic roadie activity, the sonic sounds of Southern Americana, gothic country music came over the Princess Theatre sound system. It was a call back to the bayou with this ‘trending sound of the year’ for New Orleans’ band Cane Hill.

Cane Hill comprises of Elijah Witt, James Barnett, Ryan Henriquez and Devin Clark.And they had expectations of the crowd after they introduced themselves with Elijah Witt’s: “What the fuck is up, Brisbane?” The instructions to the crowd were for “crowd surfers, headbanging” an active mosh pit, some walls of death and “to be better than Sydney!”. I got the feeling that other crowds on the tour had not been as “energetic” in response to Cane Hill’s distinctive and shimmering sounds as they delivered in ‘Power Of The High’. The Brisbane crowd were happy to oblige as the crowd surfers crashed over the barrier into Tyson’s waiting arms and the circle pit turned and crashed.

Cane Hill’s sound is truly unique as ‍‘Finding Euphoria’ proved with its captivating and atmospheric breakbeats and a wall of sound that bounced off the walls. The band’s metalcore with synths was almost progressive metal in style. And so were the melodic ‍songs ‘Permanence In Sleep’ and ‘Drowning Therapy’ that ventured into sonic harmonic fields. The songs ‘Fade’ and ‘I Always Knew We Were Doomed’ pulled into alternative rock territory, with added flourishes of grunge and more experimental impulses into their sonic palette.

Cane Hill’s set was surprising‍, there was hardness and gentility as they performed ‘Singing In The Swamp’. Then, out of the blue, Elijah Witt declared the last song of the set was here: “For three-and-a-half minutes, you Brisbane are on our fucking time! Can you do that, Brisbane? Bang your heads, scream these words!” as the band delivered a dizzying ending with their song ‘The Midnight Sun’. Cane Hill should have been asked to come to Good Things – they are astonishing!

The roadies were out quickly to clear the stage, and placed down risers, as Cane Hill engaged with fans and gave out setlists, pics and drum sticks thrown out into the crowd. Then, the red curtains closed over the stage and anticipation built…

The curtains opened to purple, blue and yellow lights dancing over an empty stage. Then, the venue went dark and a deafening cheer erupted as Ocean Grove came out onto the stage. The call for “Brisbane – Jump, Jump, Jump” was taken and the crowd responded as the ‘Oddworld’ was opened for business.

Ocean Grove commenced their set with the rap blended nu-metal of ‘Junkie$’ and quickly followed it with the hip-hop heavy ‘Superstar’ and ‘No Offence Detected’. The band comprising of Dale Tanner, Brent Twiggy Hunter, Sam Bassal and Matthew Kopp (aka Running Touch) were joined by touring guitarist Zak Thom to bring a night of explosive and experimental songs full of nu-metal variations.

Dale Tanner greeted the crowd with a: “Fuck yeah! How we doing Brisbane?” before the band took off to deliver the wonderful sing-along of ‘My Disaster’, that was one of the set highlights. Then, the band stopped and asked: “We put out a post asking what songs we should play, did you see that? Anyone heard The Rhapsody Tapes?”

Then, Ocean Grove delivered the melodic songs that sent the crowd into a frenzy with ‘Mr Centipede’, the hugely popular ‘Intimate Alien’, ‘OG Forever’ as Running Touch mesmerised everyone with his DJ skills and fabulous backing vocals. The venue was going off as crowd surfers broke over the barriers, walls of death crashed into one another and the place bounced. The vibrations up into the mezzanine were noticeable. Then, ‘Cell Division’ was played and the crowd sing-along took off.

The songs ‘Ask For The Anthem’ and ‘What I Love About A Natural Woman’ followed. Then, the crowd was given a short reprieve and allowed to catch their breath while Running Touch and drummer Sam Bassal deliveredan electronic dance interlude, before “the party theme section of the set” started when ‘Beers’ was played and raged in joyful ferocity.

Dane Tanner let the crowd know about the “2024 ‘Oddworld’ album” and where it had taken Ocean Grove. “We have been touring non-stop since. We have been all over the world with Thornhill and Poppy – but it’s great to be touring Australia and we love coming to Brisbane”. Then, the “let’s get this party started” song detonated with the bright ‘Sunny’ and the venue bounced, clapped, and hands were in the air, and it was another set highlight.

Then, Ocean Grove performed ‘Lights On Kind Of Lover’ before Brent “Twiggy” Hunter took on the lead vocals and delivered ‘Raindrop’, and it was another set highlight. Then, the synth heavy ‘Last Dance’ had the crowd waving their hands and lit up phones in unison. Then, the band, bending genres again played ‘Stratosphere Love’ where elements of jazz riffs floated through the nu-metalcore.

The point of Melbourne’s Ocean Grove is they don’t care about what’s trending in music. They have their own “oddworld” view and they stay true to it.

The clock had hit 10:57pm as Ocean Grove told the crowd: “It’s our last song” and they thanked the crowd for coming to celebrate the end-of-tour show blow-out as they performed ‘Fly Away’ to close out the night. The energy from the band and the crowd blew up into the ceiling. When the lights came up the very large crowd looked confused and stunned!

As we all got ourselves together, the crowd started to filter out into Woolloongabba and there was a happy buzz as fans and friends chatted about being so happy to have been treated to four bands with four distinctive metal musical styles, and an amazing night of live music.

There was one concerning matter at this concert. There was a young female child often left unattended and squealing like a stuck pig. It was really awful for the people she was near as it was painful and such bad behaviour. Also, her inappropriate declarations of “love” for older men was highly worrying to the other parents around with young children as they explained not to act like that and that child was left open to potential abuse.

If young children are to attend concerts with parents or carers, please teach them the right way to act in public. It is fine to have fun, sing and be happy – it is quite something else to assault people with inappropriate noise, actions and to leave them unsupervised. It was only because the four bands were so good that people didn’t complain and want their money back for a ruined night out because of some out of control child. This is not good for the bands and they don’t want that reputational damage following them.