Rocking up to The Kings Arms Tavern is always a good feeling for me. A lot of the best times of my music career have been in that joint and it holds a lot of special memories. I’ve seen countless bands perform countless songs and the sound mix in that room never ceases to amaze me.

I rock up to the venue and are greeted warmly by the Heathen Eyes crew Jase, Paul, Chris and the girlfriends that were present. A quick word with the lads and then through to  the venue I went strolling, casually greeted by old acquaintances, new gig comers, veteran mosh warriors, and the lads from Overhaile. Si Llewellyn is the front man for Overhaile, a talented muso and a GC in general.

It wasn’t long of standing around before Overhaile took the stage as the opening act. Overhaile has a very classic rock look to them combining grizzled veterans like Si on lead vocals and guitars to neophytes in the gig scene with their drummer Jared. As a band, Overhaile combine heavy rock guitar riffs with fat bass, smooth tasty vocals and the wild card element, keyboard. Adrian and Si have put a lot of time into their guitar rigs making them sing with one another and combing into a jaw dropping cohesive tone that will melt your face off and have you screaming for more. Overhaile start strong with the big choruses and tease you through the set as they spark that excitement more and more until the final number Say where the massive open chord breakdowns come in and thrash you once more. Overall they are a very tight band with energy and something to prove to the metal/rock scene.

After a short break and switch over, Day3 took the stage. Day3 drove from Hamilton to play this gig putting on a solid heavy rock performance. The songs they performed were well practiced, and radio friendly. A few of the tracks were heavier throwing in elements of hardcore but not enough to differ all that much from their other tracks. The songs felt a tad generic to me as the set went on and I lost interest. They had some cool elements in the duelling guitar solos and vocal harmonies but it was only enough to keep my attention span for a few more seconds then back into the choruses/verses that seemed repetitive and droll. The bass and guitar tones were not much to write home about, fairly standard for metal so nothing mind blowing there. As a band they worked fine and they had practiced what they have into a fine show, it just did not strike me as anything new or original.

Finally after much anticipation we have the headliner, Heathen Eyes. Having not seen Heathen Eyes perform since the Battle of the Bands Grand Final I was quite excited to see what they’ve done in the time between then and now. Jason spent a lot of time organizing the night into what turned out to be a fantastic show. Having a kick ass lighting rig was one of the biggest attractions of the night. Blue smoke and LED blanketed the stage in an eerie mist. The band begun an ambient introduction led by Paul Lawrence on the keys. Awesome use of effects from all Jason, Jak and Billy created a swell introduction that lead into their brand new song. Jason led the band with passion and energy as the absolutely tremendous blast of distortion hits you in the face and destroys any kind of hope you may have had of standing still. I had chills running from my chest to my legs and had an unwielding energy to head bang like mental. Jason’s voice is powerful, melodic and mastered. The band fits together with the satisfaction of a completed 1000 piece puzzle. As the set rolled on the crowd were continually smacked in the face with huge distortion, fantastic song writing and a well-constructed set. Any kind of music appreciator could enjoy Heathen Eyes. If you like sweet singing then you can’t go further than Jason McIver’s sultry vocals; the guitar lovers will enjoy watching dark horse rock star Jak Stone melting faces with tasty solos. Paul Lawrence adds the underlying power that lets the guitars and bass sing that much more, and for bass and drum fans look no further then Chris Birch and Billy laying down a tight and punchy rhythm section.

To wrap it up, Jason McIver and the boys at Heathen Eyes did really well to put on such a great show. Decent crowd, tight sound for all the bands, friendship, laughter, booze and good times was had and enjoyed by all. Absolutely killer, in fact one might say it was straight killer. ;D

Jesse Reeves

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