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17 March 2026 – John Cain Arena, Melbourne – words by Tim Stares
On the 17th of March I had the pleasure to go to the Babymetal concert at John Cain Arena to write a review. Let’s go through some of the events that happen.
The first band to open the night was Magnolia Park. Playing their popular songs like ‘Shadow Talk’ and ‘Animal’, starting circle pits even starting one just for the queens in the house. Before playing ‘Chasing Shadows’ Joshua asks the audience to get out their phones and put their lights on which created a nice atmosphere for the song. They really got the audience engaged with their high energy. There was even a “fuck Trump” chant going as they announced who they are and where they are from and they had one thing to say.
The second band was Bloodywood. As the lights go out there is the chant of Bloodywood can be heard around the arena. Sarthak and Vishesh then walk out banging their drums/dohl getting the audience pumped before playing popular song ‘Gaddaar’ to start the headbanging.
Bloodywood announce that they always like to put it all on the line because metal is not big in their country and their only support is from people around the world and Australia has always been a big part of that. This was met with a big roar from the audience. More talk was about following your dreams then asking the audience to sing with them as they started playing ‘AAJ’. A glitch caused a pause in the show that led to a chant of ‘fuck the glitch” We were just about to get a drum solo when everything appeared to be working much to the disappointment of the crowd as we were looking forward to a drum solo.
Sexual assault has no place in society was shouted out as they played ‘Dana Dan’ which got the crowd fired up once again.
The collaboration song with Babymetal ‘BEKHAUF’ was played which caused a circle pit to form. We thought there may be an appearance by babymetal but their vocals were just played via a recording.
Going back to their roots they played ‘New Deli’ which received a big reaction from the crowd.
The crowd is then asked are you ready for the next song with another huge roar from the crowd. But before that we are introduced to the band and all the crew then they encourage the audience to start jumping while playing their last song ‘Machi Bhasad’. Bloodywood have a very positive energy that they give off to the audience. Every song started with story just to make the songs more meaningful.
They give the audience everything they have even throwing in a flute solo and encouraging the audience to chant along with them through many of their songs. They tried to encourage a wall of death 3 times to no avail. They also thanked Babymetal for bring them out. I hadn’t heard this band before, but they have gained another fan and probably a lot more after their performance.
Before Babymetal took the stage we are listening to the break songs with the audience singing along to Chop Suey.
The lights go down as Babymetal start their show with a clip and voice over telling a story a long time ago in a heavy metal galaxy far far away. The story finishes with “are you ready to headbang” Which gets a roar from the crowd. “Now is the time for the metal forth with Babymetal” The band starts to play Babymetal Death as SU-Metal, MAOmetal and MOMOMetal come out in sync to a massive reaction from the audience. Given there are a lot of collaborations on the metal forth albums the guest singers were feature on a screen.
We are shown another clip of the story of the number 3 before playing song ‘3’ which was a nice lead up to the song. Bloodywood joined them to perform ‘Kon Kon’ which got a good reaction from the crowd. With 30 min left a chant of “FuFu” on the screen got the crowd going but a big reaction came when they played ‘Ratatata’.
Towards the end of the show, we see the words “Give Me” on the screen signalling the first song I heard from Babymetal ‘Gimme Chocolate’. The phones were out while this song was playing.
After ‘Gimme Chocolate’ everything goes quiet. Some leave thinking the show is over. Rumblings in the crowd and the chant of we won’t more then fill the arena. Babymetal come back out to perform ‘Headbangeeeeerrrrr!!!!!’ And ‘Road to Resistance’ to the delight of the crowd.
Babymetal know how to entertain the audience with their screen footage, synchronised dancing and pyro. It was also good to see the band each do a solo performance to show off their skills as musicians. You can’t help but smile listening to their music.
A very diverse crowd attended the concert. You had your typical metal heads with their metal tops, Adults with their kids, Banana costumes and foxes. It was good to see people wearing whatever they want with no judgment, just being themselves. It was also good to see bands from different countries sharing their culture through their music.
