‘Let me paint you a picture...
’ Certain gigs are more than just an aural experience, they are truly a night at the theatre. On the final evening of their headline tour, Tokyo’s hyper-pop princesses, HANABIE , brought Harajuku to Adelaide for the first time. A return visit to Australia, almost a year apart from their debut appearance at 2023’s GOOD THINGS festival, the all-girl, all-star cast were joined by Melbourne’s Doom Slayers, THE GLOOM IN THE CORNER, for a choreographed evening of rioting in rhinestone; a screening of pure cinema-core.
Emerging side of stage in characterised iterations of a pitch Black Rot costume, THE GLOOM IN THE CORNER stands their mark. Mikey Arthur’s haunting melodies adding immediate depth to the imagery, the scene is set. Tonight we’ll be taken From Heaven to Hell ; ‘Welcome to the Rabbit Hole’.
Beginning the year here on the Trinity headline tour, tonight is far from a simple remake and GLOOM are at their Misanthropic best. Four Ronin warriors engaged in combat against the stage itself, the band’s Behemoth butcher-bassist, Paul Musolino, leans over the crowd in an Apocalypta Arc . From “party song” to “one for all the ladies in the house”, Nor Hell A Fury threatens to Bleed You Out “no matter if you’re a mother, sister or girlfriend”, even a humble reporter on the sidelines of tonight’s dystopian battlefield.
Channelling the Yakuza, new song Assassination One may be the band’s most lyrically brutal song yet;.