It would be unbecoming of The Butterfly Effect showing up empty handed in 2013. They’d be the lone dull gem in Aussie’s alt/prog rock triple crown along with Karnivool and Dead Letter Circus.
This two DVD set comprises a set at Melbourne’s Palace Theatre in May last year, part of their “farewell” for departing vocalist Clint Boge. The music is accompanied by a detailed career retrospective.
Boge lets fans know what they’ll be missing as soon as he steps onto centre stage. He opens acapella with Beautiful Mine, showcasing his considerable range and forceful falsetto. All things heavy drop quickly into view, smashing through A Slow Descent, A Room Without a View and Consequence. Worlds On Fire crackles with intensity as the title suggests, crowd included. The Palace sways to Everybody Runs, an unplugged track that feeds from the current of a packed house. Anthems The End and Always fittingly lends fans and Boge a mutual closure.
Visually, there’s little in the way of theatrics. Annoyingly, lights dim to zero after almost every song, disrupting the flow. The sound is crisp and well-defined; all what fans could hope for.
The hour long documentary begins with gawky pictures of spotty teens and other grainy handheld reminiscences. It runs past “breaking through” with producers, managers and internal conflicts caused by the former, right through to Boge’s creative disaffection with guitarist Kurt Goedhart in 2012. Effected is a golden clutch of Butterfly Effect memories and tidbits, giving die-hard fans a place to revisit the “classic” line-up in happier times.
BY TOM VALCANIS
Best Track:Consequence
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: DEAD LETTER CIRCUS, KARNIVOOL, COG
In A Word: Bittersweet
