MUDVAYNE + COAL CHAMBER - Live in Brisbane 2024
Written by: Tom Wilson - Sense Music Media | Wednesday 14th February 2024
Photos by: Tracy McLaughlan - Kaotic Images >> SEE PHOTOS
NU METAL ICONS BRING THE PAIN ON VALENTINE’S DAY
MUDVAYNE and COAL CHAMBER kicked off the first night of what could be their final ever Australian visit with a sold-out show at Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley Music Hall. The last show I saw within these walls was LIMP BIZKIT, so it seems fitting to hit it with another show from two more bands who rose to greatness with the nu metal boom at the turn of the century (even if one didn’t deserve the label, but more on that later).
Pictured: MUDVAYNE
First up tonight is the “spooky core” of COAL CHAMBER. The guttural pound of their debut album would never be mistaken for high art, but their knack for creating a groove is undeniable, and as Dez pointed out in a recent interview, if their 2015 comeback album Rivals had been released a few years later, it could have taken full advantage of the nü metal revival. Mr. Sandman by THE CHORDETTES comes over the PA, and the crowd roars as it morphs into the Halloween theme, and COAL CHAMBER emerge and kick things off with the sensational Loco. The pit erupts, and doesn’t subside for the next hour, Dez conducting the chaos wearing a blue boiler suit and braids. Nadja Peulen’s red hair is permanently floating courtesy of the fan at her feet, and her rattling basslines send us into hysterics.
Pictured: COAL CHAMBER
Pictured: COAL CHAMBER
Pictured: COAL CHAMBER
“Who’s got the keys to this motherfucker?” Dez asks with a smile, before plunging into Big Truck. At around fifteen songs, this is no support slot, and the band is given time to flex their muscle and show just how ridiculously tight they are as a unit. FLOOD cover Rowboat is one of those rare beasts where the entire track qualifies as a breakdown, and Dez introduces Clock as one of the first songs they ever wrote. As they bring the show to the close, there is no surprise as to what they’re finishing with, and the crowd starts chanting “the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire,” much to Fafara’s amusement. The pit opens up, Sway is counted in, and what follows next is absolute bedlam, putting MUDVAYNE in the unenviable position of having to follow it up. Absolutely world class.
Pictured: COAL CHAMBER
Bundled in the nu metal scene with bands of half their talent, in no small part due to the wacky costumes, face paint, aliases, and the dazzling technicolour nightmare of their breakout single Dig, MUDVAYNE were far more talented than they were given credit for. Ugly, artful and cerebral, their debut L.D.50 showcased a dazzling and unique approach to metal, one that had more in common with MR. BUNGLE and FAITH NO MORE than METALLICA.
Pictured: MUDVAYNE
One of L.D.50’s spaced-out interludes starts warbling through the P.A., and one by one, MUDVAYNE emerge, each member’s costume and face paint a spectacle in its own right. Greg Tribbett has opted for his original hair spikes and face paint, while Chad Gray looks like a psychotic hillbilly with a badly dressed head wound. Drumming powerhouse Matt McDonough starts hammering away at his kit, and the pit erupts with Not Falling. Chad’s vocals are painfully quiet in the mix, but this is soon dealt with, and he climbs the crowd barricade for the punishing Under My Skin.
Pictured: MUDVAYNE
With a set heavily focused on L.D.50, my inner sixteen-year-old is freaking out. I have wanted to see this band since 2001, and they did not disappoint. Silenced turns the crowd into a whirlpool, before Chad gets everyone in the room to hold their phone lights aloft for World So Cold. It’s a much-needed breather, because he then introduces the next song by saying that they rarely played it live, because they didn’t want the crowd to beat the shit out of each other. “Fuck it,” he says, and we play A New Game. Severed is a huge singalong, shifting seamlessly into Death Blooms, and Determined kicks off a brutal circle pit. Ryan Martinie’s bass playing is phenomenal, and I feel it’s worth pointing out that, at almost fifty, he still has a torso like Bruce Lee. Bastard.
Pictured: MUDVAYNE
Chad gushes with gratitude at the amount of smiling faces in the house tonight, telling us that it makes the god-awful plane ride to Australia worth it. Matt, Greg and Ryan leave the stage for a breather, and Chad takes a few minutes to muse on the importance of letting go of anger, and points out that if the rest of the world had the passion and respect of everyone in the house tonight, it would be a very different place.
They kick off Nothing to Gein, and Chad works himself into an emotional lather that is entirely appropriate for a song about a serial killer. He takes a moment, and asks the crowd … “Can you dig it?” Our roar is the right answer, and Dig almost levels the Fortitude Valley Music Hall. After an hour and a half onstage, they end things on a Happy? note, and one by one leave the stage. A spectacular show.
Pictured: MUDVAYNE
Photos by: Tracy McLaughlan - Kaotic Images
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