Wayside:
Melbourne’s Wayside were a great way to start the night of at the Enmore. With their brand of catchy melodic alternative rock. Wayside sounded great, mixing elements of Birds of Tokyo, Silverchair and the main attraction tonight The Butterfly Effect. Drawing heavily from their 2023 release What Does Your Soul Look Like Wayside brought all the feels with their emotionally driven songs. The Enmore quickly filled up as Wayside delivered the haunting harmonies of killer track Safe Forever. Vocalist Thomas Davenport sharing a story about first seeing Butterfly Effect in 2003, and how it was amazing and an honour that it had come full circle while also playing the Enmore which was a venue Wayside had always wanted to play, a lovely moment, and I’m sure the cheers from the very full floor made it even more special for the band. Ending with another great track Shine (Onto Me) once again Wayside were a great way to kick off tonight’s festivities.
The Butterfly Effect
Celebrating 20 years of landmark debut album Begins Here, The Butterfly Effect have packed out the Enmore Theatre. It was great to see a wide variety in age with the crowd and not just people that have been fans since the beginning wanting to reminisce. Proving that The Butterfly Effect’s appeal and support as one of Australia’s premier alternative rock bands have spanned several generations. The Butterfly Effect have definitely invested into their production as a massive screen onstage scrolls through major events from 20 years ago as The Butterfly Effect take the stage to a huge roar from the crowd. Bringing a cellist and keyboardist the staged bathed in warm light every second of Begins Here’s intro is eaten up by this hungry crowd, Reliving special memories of discovering this band way back in the day. With Clint Boge on a pedestal utilising the screen to perform Perception Twin as a silhouette the band definitely know how to put on an enthralling stage show. The blue turned to red for Consequence truly a sight to behold and emphasises the lyrical content. Clint then joined his band mates Ben Hall, Glenn Esmond and Kurt Goedhart in the more traditional formation for a cracking rendition of One Second Of Sanity, an obvious crowd favourite with fans screaming out the lyrics back at the band. Crave is a personal favourite of mine, it takes me back and a lot of memories from my younger days flooded in. As expected another mammoth sing along. Stripping back the rock for a gorgeous rendition of Beautiful Mine with only the cellist and keyboardist was an exceptional moment which built into a crescendo with the whole band kicking in at the end, what a way to perform an outstanding track. One forgets how stacked Begins Here was as an album as, once again, Always gets the crowd moving and singing as loud as they can. Letting us know that this was only the third time Without Wings has been performed in this way it begs the question as to why, it’s a phenomenal song. Bringing out an acoustic rendition of Overwhelmed was a special moment for all. A.D obviously sounded fantastic and I really have to give another shout out to the sound, lighting and stage production, it looked and sounded incredible. Coming back on after a slight pause for a moving rendition of Gone with the cellist and keyboardist dedicated to those of us who haven’t made it this far in the journey called life that we all share, I’m sure a few tears were shed as the entire crowd once again sang along. The Butterfly Effect have so much more in the cannon than their debut of course Window and the Watcher is yet another classic taken from A Final Conversation of Kings, what a Chorus. A real throwback to the original EP, Take it Away had one of the loudest reactions of the night. Ending the night with Reach, yet another classic from the back catalogue once again proved The Butterfly Effect are astonishing. What an absolute corker of a show and here’s to 20 more years at least.
Photos by Marc K/Nell Photography & Review by Jonotahn Hurley
The Butterfly Effect:
Wayside:
