Like something out of a movie, the journey of Engine Three Seven so far is a moving tale. A group of small-town boys move to the big city and, unperturbed by the bright lights and plentiful distractions, they quickly become one of Australia’s most promising up and coming bands…
Like something out of a movie, the journey of Engine Three Seven so far is a moving tale. A group of small-town boys move to the big city and, unperturbed by the bright lights and plentiful distractions, they quickly become one of Australia’s most promising up and coming bands…
A couple of years ago when I first met Engine Three Seven and saw them live, I was mesmerized by their captivating presence and technical performance, absolutely befuddled at how many musical hooks and melodies they managed to lace into every song. And all of this from four of the friendliest, most down to earth lads one could ever wish to know. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen Engine Three Seven perform, but gig after gig, as impossible as it seems, they seem to keep getting better. This performance was no exception. In fact, I have never witnessed a performance quite like it.
Stepping into the busy venue, the space seemed energised. It became evident quite quickly that this night was different, that there was a closeness between everyone present and an underlying shared emotion. Engine Three Seven lost a very dear friend only the day before, who many of us knew, a beautiful young woman by the name of Emma. Everybody at The Evelyn seemed to know of this, and to understand that the shared emotion was loss, with an overwhelming sense of love and appreciation for one another – the night was dedicated to her.
Engine Three Seven kicked off their set with Easy Graceful Descent, with their emotion shown through the intensity of their performance and connection with the crowd. It was difficult not to be pulled in by the band’s presence. Next up was Automatic Everything and the audience bounced along while rocking out with them – most also singing at the top of their lungs. Then onto their new EP’s namesake, Atmosphere and Battle Line Breath, which drew out emotional responses from many in the audience with the slower melodies and crescendo laden choruses.
They followed with Erasure and Adults Only, and the intensity seemed to build even more when they began their crowd pleaser Cops – frontman Casey Dean spoke candidly between songs about their loss, friends called out from the crowd saying that Emma was there, she was watching, and the emotion broke through, cutting Casey off and left what was obvious unsaid. The band prepared to play Have It All as Casey invited singer Ezekiel Ox (Over-Reactor, Mammal, Full Scale) to join him on stage. The two belted out the song in unison, Ox doing it justice with a signature high-energy performance. An avalanche of power as they both bounced off each other, metaphorically grabbing the audience by the scruff of the neck.
They ended with the brilliant Hysterical Hysteria. Casey spoke before the song began, unable to complete what he’d started to say… “This is a song about a girl I met in Byron and…” he said, not finishing the sentence. He didn’t need to.
It was one hell of a night with one audience member mentioning that it was his first time seeing Engine Three Seven live, that it was the most amazing live show he’d ever seen, and that they should be the biggest band in Australia. Agreed.
(For Emma)
Review by Lesha Pavlis
