Banks Arcade
13th August 2022
The Tuning Fork, Auckland, New Zealand
Review by Mark Derricutt, with photography by Nikita Weir.
After being super cautious about getting back out to shows, I’m out again for gig number two. A sense of normalcy seems to grow with each outing, and tonight’s no different. I’m not overly familiar with any of tonight’s bands, except for Crooked Royals new single “Glass Hands”, and several spins of Bank’s Arcades new release “Future Lovers” and 2020s “Fever Dreams EP” – so it’s a night of checking out and discovering new bands to like, love, or pass on…
As I listened to Future Lovers, I found myself somewhat conflicted in my thoughts, musically tight, heavy, hitting both the melodic and chaotic areas I often love, vocally intriguing – I’m torn between Joshua O’Donnell’s soaring voice, and his habit of using of run-on sentences and dropping consonants, it works, but it’s not quite working for me.
7:45 and a fairly sparse looking Tuning Fork slowly fills with bodies. Full Bloom takes the stage: soaring clean vocals, heavy djent style riffs, chunky breakdowns are all getting blended together and mixed with emotional screams.
Technical difficulties hit the song “Malware” as the intro/backing tape dies, seemingly about to cut the set short, but after a few minutes of impromptu stage banters and tech support, we’re up again to close the things out. The irony of “malware” infecting the set rather amuses me.
Second up, Crooked Royals hit the stage, launching directly into the new single “Glass Hands” and I’m taken aback by the smooth interplay between main vocalist Lee Mackley, and the recent addition – Christian Cartensen on cleans/screams. The sound is clean, with massive drums filling the room, helped in part, by Luke Finlay / Primal Mastering who stepped in to mix tonight.
One thing I often miss with metal core is over-the-top solos, they’re often there, but hidden or blended with the song – “Runination” however pulled out a lead that stopped me in my tracks before closing out the set with a new song “Solid”.
Australia’s “The Gloom In The Corner” is up next. I had the chance to chat with vocalist Mickey Arthur before the show, discussing the challenges of balancing a mix for the studio, and also live, whilst keeping them as similar as possible. Mickey didn’t really have a concrete answer here, but as I was soon to find out – they certainly pulled it off.
With no defined set list (“we know all the songs, we just go with what feels right”), Mikey opens up a chilling, clean wailing voice that soon drops into an almost progressive drum’n’beat-down new song (due out Wednesday). I’m already impressed and intrigued.
I have a somewhat hard time pinning the band into any set genre. Whilst they definitely lean more towards hardcore, the mix of clean and screams keeps my ears on their toes in anticipation of what’s coming next.
Whilst the turnout for tonight was less than expected, the ferocity of the pit more than made up for things, tho I can’t say I wasn’t glad having room to move.
After a longer switch over period, headliners Banks Arcade grace the stage, an intro tape plays culminating with the announcement: “Welcome to the Banks Arcade live experience!”
It didn’t take long before my impressions were being challenged. I’m still not a fan of the more screamo side of things, but the live experience if just that: something that transcends the studio production.
“Don’t be afrai…” – the lyric hits me again, and I realise one element of the band that triggers my conflicting thoughts. The elision of consonants on some lyrics keeps pulling me out of the flow. Thankfully, “Fireworks” pulls me back in with killer hooks that I’m enjoying this trip across an unfamiliar musical landscape.
Taking on the role of a metal core Moses, the sea of bodies before the stage is parted. There’s a certain irony to singing “no one wants to die” as the walls collapse into a deluge of rip of limbs as the evening draws to a close.
Metal core and Screamo may still not be the genres for me – but I can certainly appreciate and love the energy and passion of the live performance.
Were you there at The Tuning Fork for this high energy metalcore gig? Or have you seen Banks Arcade perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Note: Ambient Light was provided passes to review and photograph this concert. As always, this has not influenced the review in any way and the opinions expressed are those of Ambient Light’s only.
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