Underground News
Review: Ice Nine Kills – Melbourne (Stay Gold)
Band – Ice Nine Kills
Venue – Stay Gold, Melbourne
Date – December 5th, 2019
Review – Ned Tepper
Photos – Nicole Noy
Horror movies… Heavy music… What could be better? How about a combination of them both? That’s exactly what Boston based metalcore outfit ‘Ice Nine Kills’ do, combine some of the most brutal yet sometimes melodic music with horror based anthems and stage theatrics that are second to none. When it was announced Ice Nine Kills were finally heading to Australia for the second annual Good Things Festival, we were beyond excited. Throw in a side show at Stay Gold in Melbourne and our excitement was at a fever pitch…
First up I was fortunate enough to attended VIP where I got to to meet, greet and take part in the fun before the show. Other bands need to take note, having attended many VIP experiences, I9K’s have by far the best!
Here’s how you set an atmosphere – John Carpenter’s Halloween theme!
This would really set the theme for the rest of the night but was a nice touch to what would be an outstanding VIP event. It’s always a blast to meet, greet and get a photo with your favourite band but this is where Ice Nine step it up that extra notch. It’s not just that! They held a horror jeopardy with their fans, splitting up into individual teams led by a band member and answering horror related questions. My team was led by drummer Patrick Galante and we managed to win, which I can take absolutely no credit for not knowing many of the questions at all. It would have been interesting to see our very own Jase L Herbert take part in this, I feel he would have known 98% of the trivia! Getting to meet the band, be a part of horror jeopardy and also the awesome replica “Thank God It’s Friday” mask made for the best VIP yet…
Once again a mash up of the theme music for Friday the 13th and Halloween really set the atmosphere while we waited for Ice Nine Kills to take the stage. The sold out crowd erupted when the band hit the stage and broke into “Thank God It’s Friday”. From this moment on we knew this night was going to be something else! Not just for the music but also for the on stage theatrics that would follow suit, you’re not just getting live music – you’re getting a mini stage production. Extra credit must go to the crew member who played various roles throughout the show including Mrs Voorhees. She was absolutely outstanding!
I9K jammed through hits from last years “The Silver Scream” (which was my album of the year by far) including The Jig Is Up, A Grave Mistake, Rocking the Boat, Stabbing In The Dark and many more as well as classics Hell in the Hallways and The Fastest Way to a Girls Heart Is through Her Ribcage. There really was no downtime throughout the entire night with a definite stand out being the Scream based track ‘Your Numbers Up’ with vocalist Spencer Charnas performing the track fully decked out as Ghost face. Another notable track was their cover of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ which was performed absolutely on point. Even with the constant costume changes not once did the intensity slow down. They wrapped up the night’s proceedings with ‘The American Nightmare’ before returning to the stage to perform ‘It is the End’ which indeed it would be, for the night anyway. We would get to do it all over again the next day at Good Things!
