Live Review: Hands Like Houses @ The Brightside 15.10.15

If you’re a frequent gig goer, you’ll know that sometimes not everything goes according to plan when attending them. From unexpected traffic to the heavens opening up during an outdoor concert or even worse if you’re crazy enough to brave the weather as it comes to line up all day, you never really know what’s going to happen.

When writing my reviews for shows I prefer to have a passive voice rather than using first person, however, for the purpose of this write up I’m using it and officially dubbing this review ‘”The series of unfortunate events that lead to a fantastic night at the Brisbane Hands Like Houses show”. It’s a mouthful I know, but so are Fall Out Boy’s song titles sometimes and everyone still likes those.

The sequence of events started off with an incredibly long shift at work that would see me only missing a little bit of the first support act – Far Away Stables – set. But after problems with closing up that lead me getting out of work of 40 minutes late I realised my second problem for the night, I’d locked my keys in my car and still had to go pick up my friend. Being the kind soul he is, he offered to come get my from another part of town so we wouldn’t miss Hands Like Houses. Once we got to the venue I was relieved, although it seems their set had already started we’d only missed one or two songs. The final issue of the night was my name not even being on the door, the perfect way to round up my trifecta of things that could go wrong in one night. After a quick show of an email saying my name should in fact be there, we were could to go and the stress of the night was lifted as we joined the crowd and listened to the last bit of one of Hands Like Houses’ many new songs they would play.

If you’ve ever seen Hands Like Houses live you’ll understand the amazing performance they put on for their fans whilst maintaining an incredibly humble attitude. I can say this from personal experience as once upon a time for a different publication, lead singer Trenton Woodley was the first person I’d ever interviewed in the music industry and without a doubt I’m sure he could hear my nervousness over the phone, but his approach in the interview made it easy to be comfortable straight away when asking questions. This transpires in live performances as they band breaks down the barriers of fan and artist by showing the crowd they are just a few regular guys from Canberra doing what they love.

It was amazing to see the support they had for just a regular Thursday night in Brisbane as they played at the infamous bar The Brightside but that’s the Brisbane scene for you, rain or shine we’re always there to support bands. The first track of the night that I was there for and recognised was Shapeshifters from their highly successful sophomore album ‘Unimagine’ which was shortly followed by another new song New Romantics that was released at the start of the month. While the newer songs still give off the original Hands Like Houses sound, they are less softer and more rockier, showing just how much progression the band have made since their last album.

While the show was a part of the ‘Dissonants World Tour’ the same name as their upcoming third album, Woodley explained to the crowd that unfortunately they no longer had a date for its release but wanted to play songs from it nonetheless. My favourite they played was Glass House, however, I couldn’t help but get even more excited when tracks like A Tale Of Outer Suburbia andWisteria were played.

After thanking everyone for coming out, the night was closed off with their most well-known song ‘Introduced Species’. However, after some persistence from the crowd the band come back on stage for an encore to play No Parallels, something they usually don’t do Woodley explained.

Hands Like Houses are one of the best Australian bands right now and deserve all the success they get. While they may not fit with a particular genre here as the pop-punk and hardcore scenes dominate Aussie music, they stand out on their own and as cliché as it this sentence is, if you haven’t seen them live you are missing out.