Reviewer: Alec Smart
March 10, 2019
Sum 41 performed a Download Festival side concert at the Crowbar, Sydney, on March 8, with support from Eat Your Heart Out.
Billed as a ‘kick-off show’ to the weekend Download Festivals in Sydney and Melbourne, Sum 41 and emo rockers Eat Your Heart Out played to a capacity crowd of festival revelers in Leichardt in Sydney’s inner west.
Newcastle five-piece emo-punks Eat Your Heart Out have gone from strength to strength since their debut EP Distance Between Us was released in 2015. Fronted by the dynamic Caitlin Henry, the band settled into stride immediately they hit the Crowbar stage, with Caitlin rousing the crowd with her powerful vocals and relaxed stage presence. The band bring to mind fellow emo-rockers Paramore, with a similar wall of sound and melodic female vocals.
Stand out songs included Patience, Rock Bottom and Cellophane, and the newly released Carousel drew a positive response.
Their lyrics are of a personal nature – strength through adversity, the comfort of friends, discarding problem relationships – and what section of the audience were unfamiliar soon warmed to their inclusive and dynamic show.
Canadian punks Sum 41 ascended the stage beneath emerald green shafts of light enhanced by a flickering strobe while the house stereo played the opening riff of AC/DC’s TNT, the audience joining the familiar chant of ‘Oy! Oy!’
The band immediately launched into their 2002 hit Over My Head and the audience erupted, and thereafter they had the crowd eating out of the palms of their hand.
Thereafter they played a set that focused on the better-known songs of their 23-year, six-album career, in their signature melodic-but-intense fusion of metal, punk and pop. Judging by the dancing, singing, crowd-surfing and general enthusiasm of the audience, there was never any doubt that this band are entertainers par excellence.
With singer David Whibley’s high and raspy voice, the song verses are typically choppy metal riffs with catchy singalong choruses that cover subjects like alienation and overcoming hardship and oppression.
The band joked around a lot and at one stage played a duo of Black Sabbath hits Paranoid and War Pigs followed by Queen’s We Will Rock You as guitarist Dave Baksh paid homage to his love of heavy metal.
Particular crowd-pleasers included Motivation, Walking Disaster, In Too Deep, Casualty, Still Waiting and encores My Direction and Makes No Difference.
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