12 March 2024 – Eaton’s Hill Hotel, Brisbane – words by Lucas Bell – pictures by Bec Harbour
The onslaught of the summer colossal double header tours continue through Eaton’s Hill, with a monster bill of Machine Head and Fear Factory making their long awaited returns to Australia. And flanked by local metalers We the Hollow, from the outset, this was gonna be a good show.
Brisbane based spooky boys We the Hollow opened the festivities for the evening, playing to the biggest crowd they’ve ever played, and it couldn’t have been more perfect. I caught these guys last year on the Borderline Destruction festival, and they blew me away with their Slipknot inspired nu-metal feel. They delivered another must see performance tonight, that even had Robb Flynn from Machine Head watching from side of stage for about 10 minutes. Set closer ‘Spineless’ got the crowd moving, and begging for more right as Hollow left the stage.
We The Hollow – Eaton’s Hill Hotel – photos by Bec Harbour
After a quick set change over, Fear Factory made their way onto the stage to insane applause. Lead singer Milo Silvestro lead the crowd through a deep retrospective of the band’s career, while introducing us to the “new Fear Factory”. I’m a bit behind on the band lore, but I had no idea Tony Campos from Static X was playing on bass. Absolutely loved that. Show openers ‘Shock’ and ‘Edgecrusher’ sent the pit movement into overdrive, while songs like ‘Fuel Injected Suicide Machine’ were big on the crowd participation.
Eaton Hill’s security team worked overtime tonight as the crowd surfing was at another level, with ‘Lynchpin’ drawing utter chaos. I wasn’t sure about how I’d feel about Fear Factory without Burton, but Milo put all fears to rest, with an electric stage presence and generally likeability. The back end of the set was filled with bangers, like ‘Demanufactue’, ‘Replica’, and ‘Resurrection’, which closed off a brutal and fun set.
Fear Factory – Eaton’s Hill Hotel – photos by Bec Harbour
As chants of “Machine Fucking Head!” rang out across the Eaton’s Hill ballroom, a video package played hyping the crowd up more, showing a castle flying the Machine Head flag. Lead singer Robb Flynn walked out to a massive ovation, as he led the crowd in a sing along of ‘Imperium’. The switch into ‘Ten Tonne Hammer’ though really popped the crowd. And this was only getting us started.
Machine Head – Eaton’s Hill Hotel – photos by Bec Harbour
Robb asked if we were ready for a fast one, before introducing us to one of the newer songs in the catalog, ‘Choke’. More “Machine Fucking Head” chants broke out again, as Robb acknowledged the rowdy crowd, and introduced ‘Aesthetics of Hate’ to the crowd, leading a Dimebag chant. If you know, you know. I’ve seen this song live a bunch of times, but this show felt different, with the impending return of Pantera to our shores soon.
Robb teased a throwback, as ‘Old’ played, before we got a crazy run of songs, including one of my personal favorites, ‘Locust’, adorned with green lighting and locusts filling the screen, before we honored the ‘Blood, Sweat and Beers’, with ‘The Blood, The Sweat, The Tears’, and then a double hit of new material with ‘NØ GØDS, NØ MASTERS’, and the 10+ minute epic, ‘SLAUGHTER THE MARTYR’, back to back.
Machine Head – Eaton’s Hill Hotel – photos by Bec Harbour
Sirens rang out, before the drums of ‘Bulldozer’ bulldozed through the crowd, and we got hit with a double barrel blast of throwbacks to end the set, with ‘From This Day’ and ‘Davidian’. Not satisfied with having completely destroyed the Eaton’s Hill ballroom, Machine Head returned for one more song. In my opinion, it’s THE only song left to play. ‘Halo’, as the final chants for Machine Fucking Head rang out.
Machine Head are a band with a chokehold on the Australian scene. Every time they come out, sell outs are guaranteed. I hope they move their shows into bigger venues, because I believe they totally could. Fear Factory was simply awesome, and I hope this is the start of huge things for We The Hollow.
