Avatar @ Northcote Theatre
Avatar bring their brilliantly unhinged heavy metal freakshow to Melbourne
Words and Photos by Louie Mosscrop
There’s a specific kind of magic that happens when high-concept theatricality collides with blistering heavy metal, and when Avatar took over the Northcote Theatre, they bottled that magic perfectly. Look around the room before the lights even went down, and the crowd told you everything you needed to know about the Swedish band's wide-reaching appeal. It was a brilliant, eclectic sea of humanity from fully decked-out glam icons in velvet and face paint to weathered old rockers in faded battle jackets and the occasional red leather pants, all packed in tight and waiting for the incoming spectacle.
Pyrefly
Pyrefly kicked off the night. Hailing from Sydney, NSW they did a fantastic job of warming up the crowd. Their heavy, groove-driven set primed the room perfectly, setting an energetic tone and getting the crowd properly revved up for the headliners including some friendly poolnoodle sword fights in the mosh.
AVATAR
When the lights finally cut for the main event, Avatar didn't just walk on stage; they arrived. Draped in heavy, ominous cloaks with a single lantern held high in the pitch black, they instantly set a cinematic, eerie tone. Aided, of course, by their dedicated stage "gimp" whose glorious duty was to simply collect their cloaks once they were done with them after opening with Captain Goat.
Frontman Johannes Eckerström, ever the charismatic ringmaster, immediately broke the ice and claimed the room. Acknowledging that this Melbourne gig was the second stop of their Australia and New Zealand tour, he cheekily declared to a roaring crowd that it was officially "the first show that doesn't suck!"
Musically, the quintet proved exactly why they are revered as one of modern metal's most captivating live acts. They possess a seamless, almost effortless ability to pivot from soaring, fists-in-the-air anthems straight into unrelenting, in-your-face metal. They pivot on a dime, with the whole room feeling possessed by a sort of deranged heavy-metal circus-shanty. It was wild, unpredictable, and absurdly fun.
As the set pushed toward its climax, the theatricality only escalated. Out came the keyboard, complete with Eckerström donning a brilliant, bespoke piano jacket to deliver a haunting performance of Howling at the Waves. Eckerström was the ultimate master of ceremonies throughout the night, wrapping the audience around his finger. At one point, he leaned intimately into the microphone with a wicked grin and asked, "Melbourne, do you feel dirty?" before launching headfirst into a blistering rendition of The Dirt I'm Buried In.
But the absolute masterstroke of stagecraft was saved for the encore. The lights dropped, the crowd chanted, and before a single guitar chord was struck, a solitary red balloon drifted eerily across the completely empty stage. It was a beautifully unsettling, Stephen King-esque visual that hung in the air for a perfect beat before the band returned to deliver their final, skull-crushing sonic assault with Dont Go Into The Forrest, Smells Like a Freakshow and Hail the Apocalypse.
Heavy, intensely theatrical, and brilliantly unhinged. Avatar didn't just play a gig last night; they invited us into their freakshow, and family, put on an absolute masterclass in live entertainment.
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Thanks to John Howarth for having Outsiders Journal along.
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Avatar brought their heavy metal freakshow to Northcote Theatre, delivering a night of theatrical chaos, crushing metal and brilliantly unhinged live entertainment.