@EXCHANGE // BEING AS AN OCEAN 18/09/2013

Huge thanks to Albert Testani for contributing the following article.

Ready for some hardcore tunes, I rocked up to the Exchange to watch Capsize, The Elijah and Being as an Ocean and prepared to have my face rocked off.

As the California natives, Capsize took the stage they immediately kicked into a set that felt like it was meant to take down the building.

Complete with on and off stage thrashing, Capsize blended melodic breakdowns with guttural growls and screams, warming up the crowd for the onslaught that Being as an Ocean would release later on in the evening.

The Elijah followed Capsize with a performance so heavy in strobe lights that I’m pretty sure I need to get checked for epilepsy now. Similar to 65daysofstatic, TE played a beautiful set but it was brought down by the hardcore growls of one of the vocalists.

The guitarist emotively cried out the backing lyrics and felt like a light that washed over the dark ambiance the band created with a blacked out stage, except for those strobes. Then the atmosphere was lethargically shattered by the wavering growls of the lead vocalist.

As the lights went back up, the audience crammed towards the stage for Being as an Ocean, only to be opened up by lead singer, Joel Quartuccio, who performed the whole set off stage.

At first it was refreshing to see such a passionate performance and one that was so connected to the audience, but that enthusiasm started to waiver about halfway through the set. As I watched Quartuccio wade through the sea of bodies that desperately clutched at him and screamed lyrics hoping to get a chance to grab the microphone, I couldn’t help but watch the rest of the band on stage.

Being as an Ocean are strong influenced by mysticisms and religious themes and advertise themselves as a Christian hardcore band, not unlike that of earlier mewithoutYou.

With a strong spiritual connection to the music comes a strong connection to fans that relate and embrace these personal lyrics. But it felt like the music and the personal performance of the other musicians in the band was lost and the fervor of the swirling crowd.

The swinging hooks and beautifully cutting guitar lines provided such a strong foundation for this passionate set. It was a shame that they weren’t the ones fending of the desperate and affectionate hands of the crowd.

When the set drew to a close, the crowd, bathed in each other’s sweat, applauded as the band humbly shuffled off stage to get ready to rock more faces off on their next stop.