Live Review: Shapeshifter

Delta posters have been inescapable; smattered across Melbourne’s walls with no graffiti-scrawled surface left ignored.

So what was all the hype about? Timeless venue, The Billboard, hosted Shapeshifter NZ’s newest launch with explosive attendance from every direction. A collocation of fans from global descent pilgrimaged to the gig enthusiastically, in the upbeat mood that made even the least fervent music fan feel their contagious buzz.

Shapeshifter disappointed. Opening with a cheeky newbie, The System is a Vampire, their old-school fans were immediately deflated, and didn’t hide it. By song two, there were more than 19 people in the smoking area wittering on about how sensational Shapeshifter had been when performing on home ground and the like. Apparently the “feeling” just wasn’t there. Whether or not this feeling was there for the band, it was most certainly not there for the fans. The negative mood surrounding the external walls of the venue from early-leavers and disappointed fans proved inescapable. Why?

Acoustics and atmosphere carry fantastically in The Billboard, and the layout could have been no more ideal for such an event. However, the supporting acts before Shapeshifter, Sean Deans and Amin Payne, truly put test to the concept of success through previous successes, as it were. Infinite name-drops of previous gigs, locations and tours, were heralded and nodded to by the hardcore fans who had been there, seen the good ones, and felt fit to judge this a bad one.

Three songs into the gig and the electric positivity that initially filled the venue was still prominent through lighting, capacity and acoustics. Every song was carried to perfect live standards, yet the crowd were truly far from feeling it. Those who fought for front row were notably beginning to retreat, with an all-round rotation in audience population; this time, however, those at the front were peeking through out of curiosity as opposed to die-hard commitment and desire to stand with their fingertips keenly beckoning P Digsss’ trainers.

It is true to say that Drum and Bass culture has evolved, as have those who create and follow it. Yet this was not sufficient reason for the anti-climactic disdain in the eyes of Shapeshifter’s oldest fans, nor the empty feeling left in the hearts of those who unwittingly invested their hope in tickets for Shapeshifter’s Delta launch at The Billboard in Melbourne: good luck for the rest of the tour guys, fingers crossed things can only get better for those who hold on.

Words by Lillie Almond