Touche Amore – The Triffid
Touche Amore – The Triffid
Support from Militarie Gun and Blind Girls
Photos by Vincent Shaw
Written by Bella Cockle
It has been over a year since post-hardcore heroes, Touché Amoré, graced Australian stages for New Bloom Fest in 2024, and since then they have released their latest album Spiral In A Straight Line, the namesake of our latest Australian tour. On night one of this run, we were lucky enough to enjoy a collection of bands that felt handpicked by Touché themselves, as well as a headline act that set an astonishingly high bar for the following shows.
Brisbane 5-piece, sunbleached, started our night with a sweet set of reverb-heavy alt rock tracks. Their atmospheric, slow jams cleanly transitioned into punchy, heavy-hitting vocals and percussion – displaying diverse skill in a captivating crescendo. Chasing a more intimate setting, the frontman joined the barrier-campers who welcomed him with open arms. They finished their segment by introducing us to their heaviest track to date Flowers Grow from Ugly Places, the ending of which paved a strong segway for skramz royalty, Blind Girls.
Personally, I could spend the rest of this article writing about Blind Girls. After following them for several years, it’s been amazing to see their exponential success take them on extensive Australian, European & North American tours. Tonight, their set was crushing and full of induced adrenaline. Harsh red and orange lights made you feel like you’d been dropped into the soundtrack of a horror movie. The group powered into 2022 track Wish with seemingly endless power from frontwoman, Sharni, whose scream pierces my heart every time I hear it. BG finished their exhilarating set with The Ghost in My Eye (my favourite, how did they know?) to create a showcase of technically elite and dissonant screamo.
Los Angeles outfit, Militarie Gun, lept on stage with fan-favourite track Ain’t No Flowers. Their style notably less heavy but with no shortage of energy as their bouncy post-punk attitude swept over the crowd who jumped along with the members on stage. The group debuted Kick for us – a currently unreleased track – followed by the punchy and rebellious Big Disappointment. Frontman Ian Shelton reminisced to us about how his old high school band played with Touché Amoré 17 years ago, and never anticipated that he would be taken to Australia by them now. The boys were clearly riding the highs of their success at Outbreak Fest & major global tours, you could feel the same energy just in our small venue. If there wasn’t already a room full of Militarie Gun fans, they surely gained one by the end of the night.
Flexing their notoriously exquisite music taste, Touché greeted us on stage to the tune of Surrender by Cheap Trick. I couldn’t ignore being instantly mesmerised by guitarist Nick Steinhardt’s glittered up western blouse, cowboy boots, glitter Jazzmaster – all decisively matching the silver glitter drum kit in the safe hands of Daniel Pouliot (stepping in for Elliot on this tour as he celebrates new fatherhood). To me, it’s a message that nobody in this band is afraid to be themselves.
Wasting no time to pull the crowd in, frontman Jeremy Bolm reached for our hearts on leading cult favourite track, ~. I don’t think anyone came back down to earth after that until we slowed down just momentarily for the intro of Reminders before barrelling headfirst into the remainder of the 21-song set, pulling from six of their seven records.
Bolm has a reputation for making the stage a home for everyone, encouraging stage diving, crowd surfing, and vying for the mic. Tonight, we were separated by the Triffid barrier, which Jeremy acknowledged his mild resentment for, but nevertheless endeavoured to make us feel as close as humanly possible. It’s efforts like these that make you feel like you’ve come away with a real connection to the artists.
We were graced with, not one, but two live debuts from their latest album: Subversion and Goodbye For Now. However, you wouldn’t know it was their first time being played live – the skill with which the band played these tracks suggested they’d been on their setlists for years.
Bolm vowed a ‘no bullshit’ exit; no tacky encores, just powering through so they could hang out with us after the show sooner. To send us off in the strongest way, TA finished with 2016 heartbreaker Flowers and You. Jeremy allowed the room to echo his musical sentiments, who were at times just as loud as the band. The raw emotion of this track bounced off everyone in the venue. I can still feel the grin across my face; I love this band, and you will too.