The Getaway Plan

I’ve never been to a bad gig at The Arthouse. I’m not sure whether this is because The Artie has someone booking good line-ups or that it always seems to be full when I am there.

Friday night saw a 5 band line up greet an almost full venue – by almost full I mean that the merch room at the back was generally the only place empty while the bands were playing.

The night opened heavily with Coma Lies - who borrow their sound heavily from Botch, even going so far as to cover the B-52’s hit Rock Lobster like their heroes. As a friend of mine said “at least they wear their heart on their sleeve” or their shirt (a member of the band was wearing a Botch shirt).

Coma Lies were followed by the very melodic of Elora Danan from WAfollowed by Closure in Moscow who rounded out the opening bands with a solid sound that prepped the crowd adequately for the final two acts.

The Amity Affliction burst onto the stage next. The crowd love these guys, and Amity don’t disappoint. All tracks from the new High Hopes EP featured tonight, with lead singer Joel in some of the finest form I’ve seen him in recently (the last time I saw these guys they were supporting Underoath and while they were solid Birch’s between song banter was a little hard to understand). The Amity Affiction have really tightened up their sound in the last 9 months, the depth that has been added to the band by the keys (Trad) and the second harmonic vocalist (drummer, Ryan) have given the band a strength that is missing from most on the scene. In my opinion, the highlight of the Amity set was I Heart Throsby.

With the imminent departure of The Getaway Plan to Florida (to record their debut album) and this being their farewell show, the night truly belonged to them. They started with a new song, and kept on testing new songs with the crowd throughout the set. The new songs were metal with pop sensibilities – it will be really interesting to hear what the album sound like. There were of course the old favourites in the set – the highlight being Picture Perfect when you could hardly hear…. for the singing along of the crowd. Last time I saw The Getaway Plan was when they played opening support for The Used – personally, they should have had the national support and I’m still unsure as to how Take 21 got the gig. If The Getaway Plan continue to build their fan base there will be no stopping them in 18 months time – remember when Gyroscope used to play small shows? I do and I’m putting my money on these guys mirroring that success.

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