17 January 2024 – The Brightside, Brisbane – words by Lucas Bell – pictures by Charlyn Cameron
The man has been to Australia as the frontman of The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Black Queen, and Killer Be Killed, but never before has one of the most talented frontmen in music, Greg Pucatio, done a solo tour of Australia. Off the back of two incredible solo records, 2020’s Child Soldier: Creator of God, and 2022’s Mirrorcell, this was the first time Pucatio could really flex his individual creativity with Australia, a country he has said before feels like home. Pucatio also brought with him some exciting support acts, including King Yosef from Portland, and Brooklyn based industrial artist, and label mate, Trace Amount.
Opening the Brisbane leg of the show though, were local legends She Cries Wolf. These guys have been around the metalcore scene in Brisbane for about 10 years now, and are always a super fun time when they’re on stage. The set seemed super quick, but they used their time well, smashing out some chaotic songs to give the night a great tone setter for what was to come, especially in the chaos department. I wish these guys were on more shows. Hopefully 2024 is the year they really blow up the scene.
L-R She Cries Wolf – Trace Amount – Brightside – photos by Charlyn Cameron
Trace Amount was up next, and this was a guy I was super excited for. To give a bit of context around the project, Trace Amount was inspired by how grim and dark life was in the early days of the pandemic in New York in 2020. A lot of that darkness was channeled into songs like ‘Concrete Catacomb’ and ‘Eventually It Will Kill Us All’. Trace absolutely threw himself into this performance, mixing in his industrial tracks with raw, emotive power in his vocals, down to the single drum sitting on stage, which copped an absolute beating. There was almost a vulnerability in the performance, despite the utter chaos taking place before us. Awesome music. Awesome performance. Can’t say much more than that.
As I was starting to feel a bit of a come down from the chaos, King Yosef came out to absolutely bring that feeling back up, as during his set opener, ‘Frame’, he took a stumble on stage and knocked over a bunch of water onto the electronics, which immediately cause a bit of panic to the people up front, helping try mop up the liquid to prevent gear damage. Yosef ran around like an utter maniac, fiddling with his vocal board, and rolling around on stage, pushing out some insane vocals. This dude was fun. One of his social media descriptions is that he is a “pure sonic assault”, which is totally true. But every bit of this performance was fun. Even down to the band’s drummer, Lynden Rook. Adorned with a pink wig, throwing love hearts out the crowd, while blasting some super complex drum lines, you could tell they were having a blast.
King Yosef – Brightside – photos by Charlyn Cameron
10pm rolls around, and the crowd really starts to build into the Brightside, as it’s time for Pucatio and band to walk out. After a small delay, the band walked out and started up with ‘Reality Spiral’, as Greg walked out to a huge ovation. There wasn’t a lot of talking throughout the set, as the Greg and company just barrelled through a set of absolute heaters, including ‘Do You Need Me to Remind You?’, ‘Deep Set’, and one of my favourite songs, ‘Fire for Water’. Something I love seeing is the raw, rabid power that music can give as a connection between fans and artists. And you could tell Greg was appreciative of the support he has from the Australian fans, especially when he was going forehead to forehead with fans, as they both screamed his lyrics into a microphone together. Absolutely purity.
Greg Puciato – Brightside – photos by Charlyn Cameron
A really cool moment came about halfway during the show, when Greg brought out Reba Myers from Code Orange, to jump on stage to sing ‘Lowered’ with him. Reba features on the studio version of the track, so this was a genuinely cool surprise. Lowered was followed up by ‘A Pair of Questions’, which is definitely one of my other favorite songs. A song I didn’t expect though, was ‘I, Eclipse’. Greg said at the show this is the most difficult song in his catalog vocally, so having him attempt it for us felt really special. ‘All Waves to Nothing’ closed the main show off, before an encore of ‘Creator of God’, ‘Evacuation’, and ‘September City’ sent everyone off home. Greg even threw in a tease of ‘One of Us Is The Killer’ at the end, which the entire crowd sang along to.
At least, we thought that was the end of the show. As Greg showered the crowd with praise, he decided to throw out one more song, and even said “If my friend Jerry found out I was playing this without him, he’d be mad”, and busted into ‘Them Bones’ by Alice in Chains! The crowd imploded. Almost everyone at Brightside charged the floor to get in on a massive sing along of Alice in Chains, to wrap up what I would consider an incredibly successful first night of the tour.
