Review: Joshua Hobbins
Photography: Nate Rose
On Wednesday night the Brisbane Entertainment Centre hosted one of the more eclectic heavy lineups to hit the city in recent memory, with Ecca Vandal, Interpol and Deftones bringing together punk, post-punk, shoegaze and alternative metal under the one bill.
Ecca Vandal opened the night with a set that fused drum and bass, hip hop and punk into something chaotic but tightly controlled. Backed by a versatile rhythm section and backing vocals that added extra punch throughout the set, the trio wasted no time making an impression. Eyes Shut hit early with delay-soaked vocals and a huge sound for a three-piece, while CAME HERE FOR THE LOOT leaned hard into DnB and trap grooves without losing the aggression underneath.
CRUISING TO SELF SOOTHE and DANCE IN DEBT brought some of the catchiest hooks of the night, balancing energy with sharp songwriting, while SORRY! CRASH! closed things out with intensity still fully intact. There was a confidence to the entire performance that made it easy to see why Ecca Vandal has spent the last few years playing increasingly massive stages around the world. Her voice has become genuinely distinctive, shifting effortlessly between melody, bite and outright force, all backed by a stage presence that felt charismatic without trying too hard.
There was also a tongue-in-cheek moment that summed up her style perfectly, with a QR code flashed up promoting her upcoming album Looking For People To Unfollow. It landed as both self-aware and strangely fitting in the middle of a set built on controlled chaos. With it being her first Brisbane show in close to eight years, it also felt like the kind of performance that deserved a more intimate room, somewhere the energy coming off the stage could hit even harder.
Interpol followed with a set built heavily around Turn On The Bright Lights and Antics, and more than two decades on, those songs still land exactly where they should. Opening with All the Rage Back Home, the band immediately settled into the slow-burn dynamics and climactic build-ups they’ve made their trademark. Evil sounded huge, with that unmistakable bass line and Paul Banks’ vocal delivery carrying the same detached cool that made the song iconic in the first place.
Roland and Obstacle 1 hit particularly hard, each building toward explosive endings that reminded everyone just how good Interpol are at tension and release. The New stood out thanks to its foreboding atmosphere, helped along by a strong lighting setup and a brilliant bass intro that rumbled through the venue.
For much of the set, the band remained almost completely cloaked in darkness, which made the brighter lighting during Slow Hands oddly impactful. It was also probably the first point many people realised there was even a keyboard player on stage. New track Wings On Fire slotted in naturally amongst the older material, never feeling out of place against songs that have now soundtracked multiple generations of indie and alternative music fans.
Closing with NYC after a brief technical issue with the guitar, the band turned a potentially awkward pause into something memorable. Bass and keys drifted into an improvised soundscape while drummer Sam Fogarino pulled the crowd in with a call-and-response build, starting with four sharp kicks of the bass drum answered by four claps from the audience, before gradually adding extra beats and fills each time until the song finally kicked in. It was a subtle but genuinely cool moment of connection from a band not usually known for crowd interaction.
By the time Deftones took the stage, the atmosphere had shifted completely. The lights dimmed, the crowd erupted, and from the opening notes of Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away), the entire venue felt locked in. The low end sat thick in the mix all night, with bassist Fred Sablan rumbling beneath layers of massive guitar tone and Abe Cunningham’s propulsive drumming.
Guitarist Lance Jackman more than held his own filling in for Stephen Carpenter, with his backing harmonies and heavier vocal parts consistently locking in perfectly with Chino Moreno’s and adding even more depth to songs that already felt enormous live. Diamond Eyes delivered one of the biggest guitar tones of the night, while the transition from Feiticeira into Digital Bath sparked the first major surge of White Pony material, something the crowd clearly wanted more of.
Tempest highlighted Frank Delgado’s atmospheric textures beautifully, while Chino absolutely nailed his choruses all night, visibly feeding off the energy coming back from the crowd. Swerve City had the entire floor bouncing, before My Mind Is a Mountain delivered one of the heaviest moments of the night. Mascara leaned fully into sludgy atmosphere, and Around the Fur perfectly captured the band’s ability to hold tension right up until the final release.
The run through Beauty School and Sextape brought the melodic side of the band forward, with the latter still pulling one of the loudest crowd reactions of the night thanks to its unexpected second life online over recent years. The new material from Private Music slotted in surprisingly naturally amongst the classics, never disrupting the flow of the set.
Hole in the Earth and Genesis kept things moving toward the finish, while Change (In the House of Flies) arrived with near-perfect timing, Chino silhouetted against the rising sun behind him. It was one of those visual moments that felt almost too perfect to script.
The encore pushed things even further. Cherry Waves brought one of the stranger but somehow perfect sights of the night, with a circle pit breaking out during one of the band’s slowest songs. My Own Summer (Shove It) followed with the pit still surging, before 7 Words closed the night out in chaotic fashion for the older fans who’d been waiting for exactly that kind of finish.
Across the entire lineup, there was a strong sense of contrast without disconnect. Ecca Vandal brought unpredictability and style, Interpol delivered restraint and atmosphere, and Deftones turned everything into something physical and overwhelming. What stood out most though was the crowd itself. There were plenty of older fans who’d clearly grown up with these bands, but just as many younger faces experiencing songs like Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away), Sextape and Evil in a live setting for the first time.
The first time I saw Deftones I was as a teenager at the Warped Tour in Coffs Harbour. Since then, I’ve watched the band grow from venues like The Tivoli, to festival slots at Big Day Out, to Riverstage, and now to a crowd this size at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre. Seeing a younger crowd connect just as strongly to these songs decades later was something special. Between word of mouth, longevity and a whole new audience finding the band through TikTok, Deftones are clearly bigger now than they’ve ever been, which feels genuinely heartening in an era dominated by algorithm-driven pop stars and stadium country acts.
– GALLERY –
