In support of latest album 'The Classic Symptoms Of A Broken Spirit' and mid-pandemic release 'For Those Who Wish To Exist', on Friday night (17 February) the Adelaide Entertainment Centre hosted the opening night of Architects' Australian tour.
The band delivered and delighted a feverish audience with a set list weighed mightily in the two releases, but not without some potentially serious drama and a few tears shed along the way.Despite a major setback to their career earlier this year (unfortunately finding themselves victims of a burglary of their rehearsal/ storage space), first support act, Melbourne's Thornhill, took to the stage with something to prove, undoubtedly brimming with anger and frustration.
They demonstrated, in their criminally short 30 minutes onstage, a raw aggression and emphasis usually reserved for headline acts. This strength and perseverance was identified by the audience with absolute certainty and fed right back to the artists, delivering what was for both parties an utterly cathartic experience.
Frontman Jacob Charlton issued sincere gratitude to "every person who put money into saving this band" of late, and throughout their time onstage carried the band with the confidence and self-assuredness of a performer capable of holding an arena audience in the palm of his hand.
Thornhill - image © Mike Lockheart
After Thornhill was Canadian melodic hardcore outfit Counterparts, who put on a completely unpretentious display of pure aggression and disquiet – there are no airs or graces to this band, their work or performance, but evidently a familial group of musicians doing what they love.
Frontman Brendan Murphy was perhaps not as fully at ease with the runway-shaped layout of the stage, with the band spread out and distanced from one another.
Their intimate and again, highly cathartic music is deserving of an intimate setting. This is perhaps why the band did not have as easy a time engaging the growing crowd at the Entertainment Centre.
However, they still maintained a ruthless sound and attitude from start to finish, expressing great appreciation for their ability to get out touring their viscerally savage offering again.
Counterparts - image © Mike Lockheart
Amongst a growing haze of stage fog and palpable excitement in the room, Architects set was preceded by an earnest and urgent speech on demonstrating respect towards women, and holding perpetrators of harassment and domestic abuse accountable among our own friends.
In a blaze of fury and utterly dazzling lights, the band take to the stage to deliver a one-two punch of 'Black Lungs' and 'Be Very Afraid', from the aforementioned 2021 and 2022 albums respectively.
With the audience whipped into utter frenzy, an audience member in the heat of it all managed to make his way onstage during Architects' fourth song, 'These Colours Don't Run', charging lead guitarist Josh Middleton, displacing him and briefly ranting incoherently into his microphone.
Once pinned down by Architect's dedicated crew, he disrespectfully yelled to vocalist Sam Carter his thoughts on the current direction of the band, that they should be paying respects to late Architects' guitarist and founder Tom Searle and play older material.
Architects - image © Mike Lockheart
After being swiftly removed from the stage by crew and security alike, despite dramatically felling stage curtains during his exit, Carter rightfully explained the irony to a shocked if patience audience that "we were playing the oldest song in the set. We respect Tom every single day of our lives. So to turn around and think my best friend is being attacked by somebody, get the f... out of here."
Carter further vented that "people need to understand, the things people say to each other on the Internet, it can't go on like this. You can't run up onstage and do this sh.t, it's 2023." But that "life goes on, and life is fleeting".
Figuratively and literally shaking off the bad vibes, nobody was willing to let this obvious setback ruin the night. This was honoured in true form by Architects delivering an incredibly energetic performance of recent single 'Deep Fake', underscoring the unmatchable energy this very band puts into their work.
Likewise, a great deal of meticulous care and planning is visibly evident from the phenomenal light show accompanying the band on this tour. Carter's vocals are similarly crystal clear in their delivery and amplification in this live setting.
Architects - image © Mike Lockheart
Furthermore, it was revealed the band is fulfilling this tour with a stand-in drummer, Sydney studio legend Troy Wright, who took the role at a moment's notice and executed the entire set flawlessly with just one rehearsal under his belt.
On several occasions, Carter, an affable and charming frontman, gestured genuine gratitude to those who come to see the band play, going as far as explaining the band's appreciation of the work their audience put in in order to pay for these tickets.
With this, it was made clear that band only wish to give it their all to them each and every night. He later pledged an earnest call to action for men's mental health and well-being, tearfully revealing his own challenges, past and present, and insisting that though some of us may not feel it, we are loved.
Architects - image © Mike Lockheart
Such an atmosphere of acceptance and catharsis laid the foundations for massively emphatic performances of 'Doomsday', 'Memento Mori' and 'When We Were Young'.
More photos from the show.
