Falling in Reverse
Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, VIC
Friday, March 14th
We can immediately tell Black Veil Brides are Hollywood-based, Mötley Crüe appreciators. They’re theatrical – running on separately to soak up applause before even playing a single note. Later, the band’s three axemen – Jinxx, Jake Pitts, and Lonny Eagleton – head-bang in unison while evenly dispersed across the downstage hero platform. Vocalist Andy Biersack mostly struts around the stage, effortlessly switching from clean to unclean vocals. Biersack’s lung capacity is nuts! At one point we count to 28, slow and measured, while he sustains a single, yowling, demonic note!
Drummer Christian “CC” Coma pummels so fast that his beats should soundtrack a scrambling cartoon centipede’s feet. As “Coffin” takes flight, a mid-stalls circle pit opens up and our eyes are immediately drawn to a bloke sporting a banana costume, capped off with a studded black leather vest. Biersack promises Falling in Reverse will deliver “the best fucking show you’ve ever seen.” Is he full of it? Let’s find out.
During the break that precedes Falling in Reverse’s arrival on stage, this evening’s crowd sounds equally chuffed singing along with “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers as they do Linkin Park’s “In the End”. Once the house lights dim, AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” plays out over the venue soundsystem as footage of Falling in Reverse in the green room graces the giant screens. Let the squealing commence! Then the band take their sweet time, goofing around and miming the guitar parts, while winding their way down backstage corridors. Finally, they appear on stage.
Falling in Reverse open with the sinister, atmospheric “Prequel”. Frontman Ronnie Radke is spotlit, bulging muscles testing out the integrity of seams on his long-sleeved, black mesh top. Furiously spitting rhymes with aggro intensity, Radke’s kinda terrifying to witness in the flesh. “I used everything I had available to make me the person I am today!” he rages. Radke mostly traverses the downstage hero platform, conducting his congregation: spirit fingers in the air, arms swaying overhead, middle fingers raised skyward, smartphone torches aloft – we obediently follow his every command. He’s as manic as Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker up there and Radke also loves chucking his mic high-up in the air, watching it spin before celebrating every single deft catch.
Mid-stage flame throwers detonate to the beat, heating up the entire stadium as “we become the walking dead” for “Zombified”, resplendent with dense, carnivalesque riffs.
“This is why I started… this is wonderful,” Radke gushes, before the band launch into their brutal diss track, “Fuck You And All Your Friends.” The self-referential “Bad Guy” packs a punch, as a parade of crowd-surfers convoy from dead-centre of the mosh to the outstretched arms of security in the photography pit. “Just Like You” is also meta: “I am aware that I am an arsehole / I really don’t care about all of that though.”
Mid-song, Radke stresses – numerous times – that he’s singing live, even tapping his mic to further prove his point. “It’s like having three fucking lead vocalists,” he enthuses, before lavishing praise on the BVs supplied by his bandmates: bassist Tyler Burgess and lead guitarist Christian Thompson.
Luke Holland is an absolute beast on drums. After spotting a banner enquiring as to whether Luke is single, Radke admonishes, “Save that shit for Bad Omens!” A loud and proud social irritant, Radke often finds himself at the centre of controversy and clearly thrives on chaos.
@hoopsanz Just in Melbourne watching the world burn with @Falling In Reverse #WatchTheWorldBurn #FallingInReverse #RonnieRadke
We’re totally wowed by the flame-thrower sequence throughout “The Drug in Me Is You” as Radke belts, “I’m so high on misery, can’t you see?” Then Radke informs us he’s tired, threatening to go “to F1” before disappearing back into the bowels of the venue. He’s tracked by a camera, which then zooms in on someone dressed as Steve Irwin, complete with inflatable crocodile.
After the band return to the stage, the show peaks with “Popular Monster” as flames shoot out in all directions and the mosh heats up once more. When Radke is handed a cowboy hat, he places it on his head to perform “All My Life” (ft. Jelly Roll), which he describes as Falling in Reverse’s “global fucking hit.”
Radke spruiks his band’s multi-generational appeal and our neighbour in the crowd reveals he’s chaperoning his son, grandson, sand godson tonight.
“Ronnie has left the building, this is Ronald!” Radke shouts before “Ronald” (ft. Tech N9ne & Alex Terrible). Tech N9ne appears on screen as our jaws collectively hit the floor in response to his impossibly fizzy flow.
“A thousand years of torment in three minutes,” is how Radke intros “Watch the World Burn”. Is he actually a raving lunatic or does he just play the part to perfection? A dude crowd-surfing towards Radke brandishes a boot, but his dreams are dashed as soon as Radke clocks him: “I’m not doing a shoey!” he announces.
Then the venue soundsystem offers up Queen’s “We Are the Champions” and we’re left to sing along as Falling in Reverse leave the stage. It’s a bit abrupt. Is that really the end? House lights illuminate. Yep, it appears so.
