Enmore Theatre, Sydney
Friday May 26, 2017 :
In the many times I have been to the Enmore Theatre, I have never seen it as packed out as this, could it be that The Smith Street Band sold out this place more than it’s ever been sold out before?
The band crashed into opening track ‘Suffer’ from the group’s latest album More Scared Of You Than You Are Of Me. The sound is intense and two members have extended the band, and I can feel the vibrations pulsing through my chest as they played more tracks from the new record. People are tumbling over my head but there is an amazing sense of community as Will himself points out, if anyone falls down they are picked right back up again.
After ‘I Don’t Want To Die Anymore’, Wagner claims it was a rough year and a half personally, but seems just as excited to see the crowd as they are to see and hear him bellowing “god damn you beautiful mother f***kers” at the room. Will Wagner is a beautiful front man, he smiles endearingly at the crowd and engages them with his roaring voice. Crowd favourite ‘Death To The Lads’ meant a lot of fists where pounding the air and arms were being thrown around strangers, or new friends. One more thing I noticed about the crowd is that they were loving the band so much they had the sudden urge to throw their dirty vans at the stage, something normally reserved for the complete opposite emotions towards an act on stage.
The entire set is high energy with a few borderline acoustic tracks including ‘Laughing (Or Pretending To Laugh)’, which displays Wagner’s ability to hold the crowd in the palm of his hands with his voice and emotive story telling.
The whole show had a positive and sincere vibe, which seems fitting for The Smith Street Band, punters around me walked out red, sweaty and smiling.
Reviewer and Photographer : Amy Heycock
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