Modern Life Isn’t Lonely at a Holding Absence Show
- Fiona Rogers
- 11 minutes ago
- 3 min read
The fact that it was a Sunday night didn’t dissuade people from packing out 170 Russell in Melbourne for Holding Absence's first headline Australian tour.
Stepson were the first to grace the stage, representing Australia on this line up. It was hard to not dance along to them as they opened with Eraser. They made sure to set the bar high for crowd participation by calling for a wall of death early in their set. The crowd ate up their cover of Faint. Frontman Brock commented on how they love playing the song and that they wished they wrote it, earning smiles and laughs from the crowd. The next song was their upcoming release Parting words, the crowd fully got into this one with its explosive mix of clean vocals and screams. It is one to keep an eye out for when it drops. They closed their set with Come with Me, Brock calling for every one to get rowdy. By the end of their set everyone was well and truly warmed up and ready for the rest of the night.
The lights went down in preparation for Kingdom of Giants to take the stage while Rihanna's Needed me played over the speakers. They exploded onto the stage starting their set with a massive amount of energy that they kept up throughout. Their synth heavy metal-core sound fitting in perfectly with the lineup of bands for the night. Collide had the whole crowd jumping along. Then Dana Willax took a moment to thank the crowd for coming out and supporting live music, especially in a time where AI music is becoming so prevalent. A sentiment that was echoed back through the crowd. Burner went hard causing circle pits and walls of death to break out in the venue. The first crowd surfers of the night appeared during Night shift warming up security for what was to come during their final song. People got their phone lights out for their last song Wayfinder, the perfect way to end their set with its large choruses to sing along to and heavy break down to mosh to.
It is safe to say that Melbourne has missed Holding Absence since their last visit here, as their merch had pretty much sold out by the time Stepson had finished their set.
Holding Absence opened their set with one of their new singles Whisper of a Dream, the crowd joining in as soon as the song started knowing every word. Throughout the set Lucas, Scott, Benjamin and Scott put their all into their performance hitting every note perfectly while executing jumps and spins, their energy was contagious. There were tears in peoples eyes as they played Like a Shadow showing just how much these songs mean to people. Holding Absence's ability to connect with their audience was on full display on Sunday and there wasn’t a moment where you couldn’t also hear the crowd singing along to the songs at full volume. During the set frontman Lucas promised a glaze of Melbourne and he delivered, talking up our coffee and how it is one of their favourite places to play. He spoke about how special it was to be playing in Australia given how hard it can be to make the trip over and thanked everyone for coming out. He also made sure to call out the Australian bands that have helped to bring them out in the past, giving special mentions to Void of Vision, Thornhill and Alpha Wolf. This led into their new song Reflections from their upcoming album Modern Life Is Lonely, the crowd opening up the pit and moshing along. They closed their set with their classics Afterlife and Wilt, two perfect songs to belt out along with the band. The energy in the room was electric as everyone joined together to sing their lungs out and crowd surfers made their way to the barrier.
Holding Absence's next album Modern Life Is Lonely drops on the 18th of September and if the first 3 releases are anything to go by, it is going to be one that you need to set an alarm for so you can listen to it as soon as it drops.
