Concert Review with PHOTOS: Seether
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CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL SEETHER GALLERY BY SHANE JONES
By Shane Jones
Artist: Seether with special guest Stonehurst
Date / Venue: Monday May 28th, 2018 - Isaac Theatre, Christchurch
I last saw Seether in Christchurch, back in November 2008 at a much larger venue called Paul Kelly Arena, (now known as Horncastle Arena) at a rock festival called Southern Amp; which they shared the stage with the likes of The Dandy Warhols, The Living End, The Valves plus many more artists on a very hot humid day. Some years and two hundred days later they come back to hit us again with their post grunge, alternative hard rock on a very cold wet rainy 5 degree Monday evening, at a much smaller intimate venue with approximately 1,100 fans awaiting.
Before they set in to play, the background music from Black Label Society starts playing while the auditorium fills. Opening band Stonehurst walk onto the stage and open up with their set with Step Outside, from which I’ve just come in from the cold. I’m in it for the long haul of hard hitting music that awaits myself and others. Onto their second track called Close To Home,(from which yes they’re from Christchurch). They play long rifting songs, a total of 7 - these guys are great and have opened up for the likes of Black Label Society, Devilskin, and Halestorm in the past, so getting the chance to open again for a huge band like Seether is just the bees knees for these guys and they’ve deserved it. They are well structured and very tight with playing and I hope they get to open for more huge acts in the future.
A reasonable break in between the two acts as the stage gets cleared of all the Stonehurst band's equipment to a very quick final sound check of guitars and drums before the lights dim again and the South African lads get the first notes of Stoke the Fire. Well if Stonehurst wasn’t enough to warm you up then your going from the firepit of doom to a pit of lava, these guys are well pumped and glad to be back in Christchurch again. With a onslaught of hit songs one after another it was clear to see they came here to play ball. The front 3 or so rows of fans got out of their seats (yes this venue is a seated one with 3 tiers and pretty much full), so the little gap between the front row and stage was soon become swamped with fans forming their own mosh pit which then spilled out to the edges of the auditorium as no one was really left seated. Who wants to have a great time sitting in a seat when they can be adding their own input of dancing etc back to the band?
I witnessed lead singer Shaun Morgan after the song “Rise Above”(which was the 5th song in) bend down and give the smallest (and also the youngest fan) a guitar pick and then commented on his enthusiastic bouncing up and down in front of him that he was a very energetic kid and praised him highly.
Dale Stewart on bass was a real dynamo bouncing around the stage swapping places with touring guitarist Clint Lowery, showing off his juggling skills with his bass guitar, and got the fans pumped up with a few fist pumps into the air not that he needed too, as the fans were in full participation with their own fist pumping into the air.
Drummer John Humphrey knows how to deal to his kit in front of him, with each powerful hit, his drum kit indeed was getting a serious workout.
The stage is cleared of John and Clint, while Dale picks up an acoustic guitar and Shaun gets another electric guitar from his guitar tech, and starts singing the first few lyrics to “Broken”, which then got the fans in full voice singing back to Shaun and Dale. It’s always great to hear the voices from the fans singing back to the band, from that time on the crowd didn’t let their voices die and continued with the rest of the songs to the end of the show.
Shaun decides to remove himself from the stage during “Remedy” and with his guitar in hand does a full circuit of the lower stalls playing as he walked past everyone which got a few fans in the above tiers wondering where he’d gone, until he re-joined the moshpit, then getting himself back onto the stage while Dale and Clint were handing out John’s drumsticks and the guitar picks. They close off their set by thanking the crowd before they all walked off stage and the lights came on for everyone to exit back into the cold wet night.
Well this show had enough energy to tear the Cherubs painted up on the domed ceiling down. And although I thought that the dimly lit stage was only lit up about 20% of the time with white lights, it didn’t really help with the stage presence these guys threw at you. Although this was the loudest show I’ve attended at this venue, it was great to have it vibrating in such a way, that left you in a great awe.
Wellington, you're up next on Wednesday night at the TSB Arena, and Auckland’s Great Hall on Thursday 31st before they head to Germany for Sunday's show.
If your sitting on the fence contemplating whether you should go or not these guys wont let you down. I just hope its not along time before we see them back down here again.
Stonehurst Setlist
Step Outside
Close To Home
Memories
Ultimate Shadows
Portal Of Dreams
Beating The Scale
(Suffering Man)
Seether Setlist Christchurch
Stoke The Fire
Gasoline
Let you Down
Truth
Rise Above l
Betray and Degrade
Words as Weapons
Save Today
Country Song
Fine Again
Driven Under
Broken
Nobody’s Praying
Fake It
Remedy
