15 October 2026 – The Triffid, Brisbane – words by Lucas Bell – pictures by Marty Schmidt
From Ashes to New to me is a funny band. On paper, they are a band that have every piece of the puzzle to be an immediate success. And while the band have been pumping away with five records in ten years, the band only made it over to Australia for the first time as part of Good Things 2024. Now, with their new record ‘Reflections’ under their belt, Australia became a priority for the band to return to, with the band’s first headline tour ever of the country, and we were lucky enough to be invited along.
Opening these shows was Melbourne based alternative metal crew Banks Arcade, who kicked off the festivities with the aptly selected ‘MOVE’ as the first song on the setlist. With that tune, the entire Triffid was moving from side to side and rocking out super hard. With a quick “what the fuck is up Brisbane” from vocalist Joshua O’Donnell, he teased an old song in ‘Roulette’, and even got the crowd going hard out with a wall of death. The band’s latest record, ‘SECOND PLACE SUPERSTAR’ recently just dropped, and the rest of the setlist was literally most of that record. O’Donnell mentioned how excited they were to be playing a lot of these songs for the first time in Brisbane, as ‘ROCKSTAR’ started up.
Banks Arcade – Triffid – photos by Marty Schmidt
‘KNOW ME’ got a quick shout out to From Ashes to New, and a dedication to them for the last night of the tour, and O’Donnell mentioning just how amazing it was to move from New Zealand to Australia to make this dream of being in a band happen, and mentioned how he’d be outside in merch for the rest of the night if anyone wanted to say hi. They blitzed through tracks like ‘SEVERANCE’, ‘MIRROR’, and ‘LAST TIME’, with the love song, ‘WAIT’ getting a lot of love. The pit spun one more time for ‘YUCK!’, before ‘DON’T MISS’ closed out the set, with O’Donnell asking for a dude in the crowd to get up and crowd surf because he wanted to give him a high five for rocking out the whole set, which happened as well.
After a quick 30 minute changeover, and one of the greatest playlists of songs between sets I’ve ever heard, the light cut at 9pm as From Ashes to New walked out. Straight out of the gate, we got the intro to ‘New Disease’, as these insane smoke cannons went off. While they dissipated quickly, I haven’t seen smoke cannons that insane outside of maybe the Riverstage or the Brisbane Entertainment Centre. Inside a small room like The Triffid, they really go nuts. As ‘Nightmare’ played, a projector screen behind the band lit up with accompanying graphics for the rest of the show, and ‘Heartache’ got the crowd throwing arms from side to side, as multiple women let out The Beatles’ levels of screams at the band.
From Ashes to New – Triffid – photos by Marty Schmidt
After ‘Monster in Me’, Brandyberry spoke about how sick he was feeling, and how burnt out his voice was. To the point where he almost wanted to give up after the Sydney show. But despite the shredded vocals, he wanted to get to every show and perform, and since they don’t have any shows until December, he decided to just fully send it and blow his voice out tonight, with plenty of time to recover. He mentioned that the next song was almost retired before this tour, but they decided that because the song means so much to so many, they wanted to keep it in the set, and they hilariously shouted out a friend of mine that did the whole tour, as Brandyberry asked for help on the raps to ‘My Name’. The entire crowd helped along, and it was one of the most special songs of the set.
Despite being very sick from the first show in Sydney, and carrying it all the way through Melbourne and Adelaide to Brisbane, Matt Brandyberry checked in with the crowd to make sure everyone was having fun, and more smoke cannons went off for ‘Drag Me’. Brandyberry asked if the crowd wanted more from their new record ‘Reflections’, as he asked for the pace to get picked up for ‘Black Hearts’. This song in particular was rad for me, because on the backing projector, they were just showing clips of fight scenes from the anime Solo Leveling, and I absolutely love that show. Now I was one of these guys to do a song for that anime.
From Ashes to New – Triffid – photos by Marty Schmidt
Brandyberry thanked Brisbane for making the ten thousand mile journey worth it, and how they could have succumbed to all the doubt and hate that’s been thrown their way over the years. But Brandyberry said that all those people can go fuck themselves, as Brisbane cheered loudly. Brandyberry thanked the fans for always showing up, because without them, From Ashes to New would play to empty rooms, and that’s not so fun. Brandyberry mentioned how much he loves Australia, and how getting here always felt like a pipe dream. But seeing the love Australia has for the band, they want to come back as much as they can, and Brandyberry even mentioned how Brisbane is the biggest city in their Spotify metrics worldwide, with Sydney and Melbourne being very close behind. I don’t know how true that actually is, but that’s kinda crazy if it’s true.
After mentioning no beverages from his boot, we got back into the tunes with ‘Barely Breathing’, as hands went up all over the venue on the bridge. Even guitarist Jimmy Bennett got into it, waving a cane on stage as the crowd threw hands from side to side. We got ‘Villain’, and the newest song, ‘Love Me’, before we got the only track off ‘Day One’ in the set, ‘Through It All’. I was kind of hoping for more ‘Day One’ songs, as that record is what made me into a fan. Even just ‘Land of Make Believe’ would have made me super happy, but ‘Through It All’ was definitely the right call, as the crowd sang it crazy loud. Brandyberry and Danny Case quickly figured out it was Thursday, as they shouted out the older people in the crowd, identifying a couple of people over 65 years old, which Case lost his mind at. He gave a pass to the older people to not jump on the next song, and it was everyone else’s jobs to do it for them, as ‘Nothing’ played, and we even got a joke about how we should be thankful they didn’t book a four band bill on a Thursday night. And yes, thank fuck that didn’t happen.
From Ashes to New – Triffid – photos by Marty Schmidt
Brandyberry told everyone to let the adrenaline fall a little, as the slow song was next, and how the next song is how a lot of people found the band, which is cool, as ‘Die for You’ played. The crowd was loud for this one, and I totally didn’t realise how many people had this as their song to discover the band, which is so cool. The song absolutely rules live. Brandyberry shouted out an eight year old in the crowd, who he spotted singing every word with raw emotion, and that as a dad, it was a moment he’d remember for the rest of his life. With the announcement of the final song, and no encore, the set closed out with ‘Panic’, as Brandyberry and Case instructed Brisbane to lose their fucking minds for one more song. And Brisbane obliged, as the pit opened up, and before the final scream, Case and Brandyberry wished Brisbane a good night as the smoke cannons emptied for the final time, as strobe lights and a big ending sealed the end of the show.
