When attending a sold out home town show you know you’re about to see some magic. The diehard fans singing along to every lyric, the swaying in unison, the smell of adoration and respect…. even if you’re not a punk rock fan, the atmosphere turns you into a punk rock fan. In support of their critically acclaimed second album Drag It Down On You, a sold-out crowd gathered at Northcote Social Club to witness Melbourne boys CERES deliver a night of brilliance.
Opening the show were locals Crusch, with a short but sweet set. Their excitement to be there shone through and their stage presence was contagious, perfectly setting the mood for the next act. Playing to a decent sized crowd, APES proved to be a fan favourite. As more people piled into the room, it was clear that many of them were just as excited to see the main support, and rightly so. Hailing from Ballarat, APES played a killer set. They were good at reading the crowd and knew when to slow things down and when to pick things back up. The finished on a high, leaving the crowd amped for CERES.
Walking onto the stage, you could tell that the band were thrilled to be playing on home base. There was a slight air of awkward excitement as front man Tom Lanyon took to the mic and opened with their first song “Okay”, but once things got going the crowd instantly connected and there was a sea of moving bodies. Every song they pumped out seemed to mean something to someone, with shouts of joy coming from every corner.
“Laundry Echo” started off a bit rocky, with slight sound problems resulting in a slow start, but once that was overcome it proved to be one of the highlights of the show. The fast tempo injected the crowd with drive and a small mosh pit started to form. The conflicting emotions of the album were perfectly emulated through the raw energy projected by the band, particularly by Lanyon, who sang every lyric with earnest passion. This was evident in tracks like “Choke”, and “91, Your House”, which saw the crowd screaming along to the emotional chaos and swaying to the patchy acoustics.
“Baby Breath” was a welcome ending which left the crowd buzzing, perfectly buttering them up for the encore which was by far the highlight of the night. They came back on stage and rocked out “I Don’t Want to Be Anywhere But Here”, with everyone singing along as loudly and passionately as they could. When the show came to an end and the crowd stated to shuffle out, the room was left ringing with love and you could see the twinkle of mutual appreciation in everyone’s eyes. There’s nothing like a hometown show.
You can catch CERES in Brisbane (November 4th), Adelaide (November 5th), Launceston (November 6th) and Sydney (November 12th). For dates, tickets and more details head to Oztix.
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