Mudvayne and Coal Chamber Live Review @ Melbourne's Festival Hall
American Nu-Metal bands Mudvayne and Coal Chamber's reached Melbourne last night for an amazing show
Whilst current media sensation and eleven-time GRAMMY winner Taylor Swift was performing at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground), there was a slightly smaller but no-less enjoyable show going on a short distance away at Melbourne's more-intimate setting of Festival Hall. With lines of eager heavy metal fans stretching around the building already hours prior, you could tell the energy inside would be unmatched.
Doors opened around 8:00 with the four members of American nu metal band Coal Chamber taking the stage, heading straight into the instantly-recognisable opening bars of 'Loco', frontman Dez Fafara soon opened his mouth: "Open up this f#cking pit. I want you leaving here in a body bag!" a gap soon formed within the crowd, waiting for his vocals before soon filling in. I personally had to watch from the upper seats as I had trouble getting into the pit until the second act, but you could feel the bands energy through the entire venue. After the usual set list, a wall of death, and countless circle pits, we saw the band eventually close with 'Sway' before snapping a picture with the crowd and saying their goodbyes.
After a not-to-long break, Mudvayne took the stage, frontman Chad Gray repping the iconic face paint and overalls. I was still outside at this point waiting for them to let me into the pit but the sound of their iconic song 'Not Falling' was heard clearly even from outside the venue. I made it in before the song finished and was able to get up front to witness the classic and nostalgic set list the band had provided for us, the highlights included Internal Primates Forever, World So Cold, A New Game, Dull Boy which had the enitre venue chanting call backs to the frontman, and 'The End Of All Things To Come' which had Gray requesting that the crowd light up the venue with their phone torches. He ended the song by crawling off the stage and into the first few rows of the audience connecting with fans and sinking into hands as they held him up.
Mudvayne had a fifth player onstage, Marcus Rafferty, who was handling additional guitar and backing vocals, once the show had ended Rafferty made his way back out onto the floor and in front of the right side of the barricade to hand an eager crowd member his guitar pick and was met with surrounding crowd members reaching for him whilst going unnoticed by the people on the left.
The tour has stayed true to it's name, truly feeling like a form of 'psychotherapy' to fans, half way through the set Gray had stated that for one night everybody needs to take all their problems from the outside world and shove them into a little box and not worry about it until the morning, and that is exactly what went on.