LIVE REVIEW - Stand Atlantic and their friends go regional

After a constantly rainy Saturday, the Gold Coast needed no convincing to leave the house and prepare for night-life activities and Stand Atlantic gave locals the perfect reason to choose Miami Marketta. A female-fronted night of rock and metal from three Sydney artists with their own touring history, together this time for a regional tour through Australia with the penultimate show at Marketta’s 500-cap stage. 

Hevenshe led the stage with an energy-driven set channelling the peak of Melissa Etheridge through both songwriting and queer allyship. Following a classic rock sound and some elements of the ambient scene, Jenna delivered a Welcome to Country before continuing her set with ‘Wish I Had A Friend’ and ‘Floor Bed’ in the mix. A further mention of the necessity of crowd-funding for smaller artists like her came through to the crowd, a brief reminder of the financial reality for many artists who experience and share their success in the limelight. Alex Powys from Redhook took the drumming responsibilities while guided by a set of brilliantly layered tracks, weaving between some of Jenna’s best releases (and other tracks that I’m biting my nails to hear on record).

Finally, the duo finished the set with ‘Essential’, stressing beforehand how important it is to simply create and to drop the falsehood that others become uncaring of what one has to say. Fans of Jenna’s music were able to meet her at the merch table, emphasising the independent nature of her career. Those lucky enough to find her there found Jenna to talk to them as though they were the only person in the room with any topic up for discussion.

Redhook came next with an eager appreciation for the heavy arts with drop-tuned guitars and breakdowns threatening to dethrone bands much greater in size. They brought the energy, they brought undeniable heat, and they brought… a bubble machine, a requirement I’ve now added to watching any show. ‘HEXXX’ only saw one person screaming louder than the crowd and that was lead singer Emmy Mack, showing what years of practice and training can do for hardcore artists like herself. Between ‘Jabberwocky’ and ‘Soju’, Emmy launches herself at the crowd to finish the last chorus of the former and invite one member up to conquer the next; Emily immediately understood the assignment the moment she landed on the stage. Finishing their set with ‘Bad Decisions’ saw Emmy open the "wall of bad decisions" (renamed from "wall of death") and join moshers in the middle of the pit as they ended ‘Bad Decisions’.

After a moment, it came time for Stand Atlantic and their four-piece metal outfit.

With a brief distraction on their second song, ‘hair out’, came the chance for retribution which every member fulfilled in spades, leading with leg kicks from guitarist and synth player David Potter, and the bassist Miki Rich with his best impression of a high jump olympiad. With a myriad of lighting and track changes entered ‘Blurry’ followed by an announcement of recent vocal complications from lead singer Bonnie Fraser. The crowd's chants came next in ‘WARZ0NE’: “FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!” Flashes of light followed every sharp stab all the way through as the crowd opened up and every audience member under six feet tall quivered.

Despite the struggles, Bonnie took a step back for a lucky fan, Elijah, to fill in for ‘switchblade’, somehow matching her energy. Soaking it in, the crowd responded in kind and filled every missed lyric from Stand Atlantic’s luckiest fan. ‘SEX ON THE BEACH’ came next with Elijah’s shift coming an end to make way for Ollie Twohill, another devotee to the group’s craft to grace the stage. The local musician gave his all through ‘Lavender Bones’ and ‘Hate Me (Sometimes)’, pushing the crowd to jump through the choruses enough for a seismologist to sweat.

Opening it up to the crowd, their pick came next for the song: 'LOVE U ANYWAY' vs ‘NOSE BLEED’ as Ky graced the stage to take it on. The band reminisced about the last time any fans went on a stage during tour internationally, finding that this time is much better than having a fan “with full butt out, twerking on stage”. Shae was next to sing ‘pity party' with Redhook’s Emmy Mack on support, followed by Joel with ‘CRIMINAL’ and a death pit to complement more of Emmy’s screams. Finally, Stand Atlantic’s tour photographer, Nikki, took care of ‘deathwish’ with gusteau as Bonnie Fraser regained some control to assist on the more technical sections. Bonnie came back to the mic and showed her gratuity to the audience for their patience through her vocal pain.

Time came for a little compensation back to the audience after Hevenshe’s Jenna McDougall got us through ‘LOVE U ANYWAY’: an audience request. Many names went in with one victor: 'KISSIN' KILLER COBRAS'. Elijah returned to the three foot monolith, delivering one last max-energy performance on the barricade. Redhook’s Craig Wilkinson and audience member Jo polished off ‘Coffee at Midnight' before their final performance for the night of ‘GIRL$’, calling up as many female-aligned people to the stage as they could. With the most amount of participants ever seen on the stage came an epic final exhibition of support for women at the front of artistic endeavours.

An entertaining night came to a close with a security escort of as many as forty Stand Atlantic patrons through the barricade to reunite with the crowd. A very grateful Miki concluded their performance with many thanks to every member, greeting them in the crowd as the guitars went silent and the drumsticks were holstered. The tour finishes on Sunday at Solbar with a hopeful audience to pack out the 450 capacity room for the last time until the next release.